Chance Encounters
by Mauser-KAR98K
Summary: The Chronicles of Aleutian. This story is based around history from the SATam and the comics. A story if Knuckles had a long lost brother...and he is not well. Filled with drama, action adventure on the high seas, romance, and somber moments. Violence gor
1. Prologue

**Attention:** Revision coming soon. I'm noticing my grammar is not up to snuff, so yet again, another revision is on the chopping block, but it's going to be slow.

This is based around the current comics, some of the games; geogrphy wise, and a little on the SATam. This is a major what if "saga" if Knuckles had a long lost brother. As I am doing this revision, I am also doing the second book and getting myself ready for the thrid and two backstories. Going back and researching this, along with other things, has been painstaking but worth it. I am doing my best to throw as much orginalty into this, weapon wise and idea wise, but still crossing some of the other things that I like from our history. Nope sorry, this isn't any of those cross over stories with some other Sci-Fi universe or "when a brother comes and saves the day." It's more like a brother needs saving...and it's not Knuckles.

Legal Stuff: I observe the orginal characters from the games, comics, SATam is not my own and of their creators.

* * *

**Chance Encounters **

**Prologue**

By: Mauser

"There's a man going round, taking names. And he decides who to free...and who to blame." –Johnny Cash

* * *

**Eve of the Day of Fury:**

Another long pull he took; his lips and taste buds burning from the freshly chilled ginger-ale that had a hint of lemon in the aftertaste. It was sour to him, but the after effect the black mongoose wanted far outweighed the bitter taste. Draining the clear glass, he poured more of the ale from an expensive shaker on top of the ice cubes that still lay in the glass. Reaching for a medicine bottle that sat beside it on the smooth table, he then poured some of it's liquid contents in his drink, only eyeing his measurement to his satisfaction.

His three day old studio apartment sat five stories up in a nice part of the now liberated Casino Night City. He watched as a few hover cars and speeders made their way down the lone street outside his window. When three more had past by in the span of only a few minutes, he felt the surge of his outlawed elixir enveloping his senses. In a few more minutes, the honeysuckle lemon juice would engulf his entire nervous system.

He wanted more, but he shot down his temptation quickly. The fear of not being able to afford more of the "juice" was furthest from his mind. The money that he had –thanks to a certain bald Overlander who was now serving hard time in the Devil's Gulag– could out last his cravings, probably for the rest of his life. No, it wasn't the money he worried about; only overdosing. It was easy to do on the "juice," the chemical make up made the user want to take in more. Even if it meant certain death.

His brain felt as if it was floating in air that replaced the fluid in his skull. He watched the blazing lights of the city in a dazed awe. The drug was now taking full control of his nervous system as he began to relax even further in his love seat.

He suddenly twitched his head behind him and to his right. He strained his neck and eyes as he gazed towards the bathroom, trying to decipher where the muffled creak was coming from. The ambient light that filtered into his large living room window fought desperately to defeat the darkness in his apartment, but failed as he couldn't see anything past the lone framed passageway that lead to his bedroom and the bath. His fighting instincts beckoned him to investigate it, but the juice told him otherwise. With an involuntary jerk of his shoulders and a snuff, the mongoose turned back around and continued his drug induced trance of the outside world.

For a moment he couldn't believe it; snow, falling from the sky in the late-summer night. It started out as flurries, but soon intensified as the wind began to pick up. The lights from the surrounding tall buildings added to his surreal feelings, making the snowflakes look as if they were rainbow balls floating down from sky. Another gust of wind began to shake the window that he gazed out of that spanned the entire room from floor to ceiling. Then a thought came to him. With the snow falling and his lemon juice taking its full effect, he wanted to take a long warm tub bath. The idea of the steaming warm water flowing around his fur coat seemed like heaven to him...and that was what he wanted at the moment.

Standing up, he tried to gain his balance that he fought against from his stupor. Three steps later he found it, but he still wobbled side to side with each stride he took. He passed a bookcase that didn't hold what it was made for. Instead, a manakin head that had his new black fedora hat on top of it. Among the new things he bought with his blood-tainted money was a large rain coat that he figured he was now going to need tomorrow when he ventured out to get more of the lemon juice. It hung in the closet, waiting for its master to put it on.

He neared his bathroom, bracing himself against the frame of the passageway as he fumbled to get his boots off, followed by his expensive Monte-Carlo shirt that he discarded as if it were trash. Before he flipped the switch to illuminate his next sanctuary of comfort, he swore he heard another creak coming from the tub. He wasn't certain of it, but he then figured it was either the wind, or the "juice" toying with his mind.

With the snap of the light switch being flipped on, light protruded into his eyes with a blinding, stinging feeling. As his pupils adjusted to the light in a mere second, he gazed hard at the tiled wall of his bath. The creaks of the fiberglass tub became very pronounced as a dark figure rose up from it. The mongoose caught the sight of the dreads that barely moved, dangling above his green shirt that covered his red silk fur. When the figure rose up even higher, almost becoming fully erect, the mongoose finally caught a glimpse of the tan snout that identified who the intruder was: an echidna, his eyes burning with rage as his brows sharpened his triangle sockets into sharp acute slits.

Even in his high dopamine state, the mongoose realized in utter horror who it was. He tried to walk backwards away from the door frame as his brain tried to make the decision to fight or flight, but he almost tumbled over himself as he tried to maintain his balance. "You– you're suppose to be DEAD!" he shouted at the echidna in protest at his new reality.

He wouldn't say another word.

The echidna rose his right arm up, leveling a large metal framed pistol with a large, heavy barrel anchored to the front of the slide.

The mongoose watched as the echidna's tendons in his hand flexed his finger.

He felt the force of the impact on his chest, but not the pain. The sounds of the slide working its mechanical journey to chamber a new round was all that he could hear. He didn't know why, but he found it very hard to take a breath at that dazed moment. Then he felt his knees start to give out. The mongoose only dropped a mere three inches when he felt two more thuds slam into his chest that registered in his brain over his drug induced state. When he began to feel the pain filter in through his nerves, his heart felt as if it was going to explode. He grasped with his left hand at where the three shots had penetrated his furred chest, feeling the blood draining from his body as he tried to protect his mortal wound. Then his pointed ears echoed the sounds of brass falling on the white tiled floor as he fell. He tried hard to get a gasp of air and he was successful, but the long pull from his lungs thundered out as a harsh wheeze.

Finally, his head hit the floor. He was still alive and fighting hard to stay that way, however, with his eyes catching the glimpse of his violet blood pooling around his furred cheek, he realize in shock he wasn't going to win. Even as the light in his eyes faded to black, he still didn't feel a thing thanks to the lemon juice that numbed the nerves from the pain of his heart bleeding out.

The echidna stepped out of the tub, his boots echoing his steps on the tile floor as he threw his face into a harsh angered frown as he watched the mongoose give out the sigh of death. With the harsh expression came the pain from his broad snout, flaming back with a vengeance. He slowly stepped around the lifeless body of the mongoose, his pistol dangling from his hand. And there, he stopped cold as he caught sight of himself in the mirror to his left. The reflection he saw of himself was bawd, grotesque enough that his face grimaced even further with the rage that burned inside him. A rage that overpowered the deep remorse that seemed to whisper to him.

In turn, the long deep cut on his snout began to run purple as his life's elixir trailed down over the his mouth...rinsed by the tears from his eyes.

* * *

The wind glided across the mournful day, making the flowers on his chest dance with the elegant breeze. A brownish-tan blanket covered his stomach down to his knees, protecting him from the elements he would never feel. They left his shoes on along with his mittens that held the flowers down over his chest. They knew he would need them in the afterlife somehow, and if not, he would have want them anyway.

Julie-Su was the last to depart, saying her farewells for the last time to her equal, her soul mate. As the sobbing pink echidna glided away from them, Lara-Le and Locke for once in a long while, held each other as they showered their dead son with their tearful eyes. They both felt that it was wrong for Knuckles to look peaceful the way he did. But something in Lara made her bring up a harsher pain than what she and her ex-husband both equally felt; something that made Locke snap his around, even above his sadness:

"Now both of my sons are dead!" she wept out. "I hope Knuckles finally meets him in the afterlife...to find the last lie that we should have never told."

"It was for the best that he didn't know about him," Locke breathed out.

"How do you know?" Lara seethed out over her tears. "It could have sent him on a quest for truth as to what happened to his brother, and possibly had this whole thing averted."

Locke slowly shook his head as he said nothing.

"But now they're both dead..." she trailed off as her sobs returned.

Locke looked over at his ex-wife with sympathy in his eyes. "But your carrying again, Lara-Le. You can move on from this with a new life that you and Wyn are about bring into this world."

"But it won't be the same without them. No parent should have to bury their sons..."

She broke down even further from the harsher thought that wasn't of burying Knuckles. "I never buried my son!" she wailed out over Knuckles' lifeless body. "What mother am I if I didn't bury my dead son."

Locke took her once more and squeezed her hands. "Blame me, not yourself," he said with his best comforting voice.

Lara threw his hands down as she now wanted nothing more to do with him. "I do...along with your selfishness, Locke!" she scowled as she took one last look at her son, rubbing Knuckles on his forehead before she left the both of them...crying as she went along.

Locke watched his former wife leave him once again as he stood century by Knuckles. But what he had said to her over the course of months was a lie...Knuckles' brother wasn't dead.

But the secret that he kept, that he feared was true, only wanted him to cry more:

"_He's not dead Lara...but I have this nagging feeling, for his sake, that I wish he was..."_

* * *

I hope I have yall hooked by now, and hopefully set the mood and history a lot better than making y'all jump into this. 

Please take time to leave a review and your thoughts. Thanks for your time


	2. When a Stranger Comes

**Attention: **Edited version once again. Must thank Zycho32 for Beta-reading with me on a good part of this. Ended up adding a lot more to this While I was looking to get rid of things. Shows how much my style has come along.

This is the very first chapter and start of this project/arc and is a bit fast in introducing my character from the get-go. However, the story afterwards is what counts after this. I am editing as much as I can on the other chapters: some might lessen, others lengthen.

Enjoy.

Legal Stuff: I totally observe the original characters from the games and the comics from their creators.**  
**

* * *

**When a Stranger Comes**

By: Mauser

* * *

**  
**

"So what is it you want me to do Mr. Hare?"

Downtown Ebony Hare looked up from the inventory sheets on his desk, clasped his hands in front of him, and smiled under his grey fedora. He liked dealing with hit-men. No long talks, just to the point and "where's my money." He glanced over to his muscle-dog, Blackjack; an overbearing grey bulldog that wore a matching grey suite. He nodded at him before he continued. "I need you to retrieve a certain individual for me. You see, this girl has been a hamper to some friends of mine, and I want you to bring her back in one piece." He paused for a brief second and gathered his ruthless thoughts. "Well, at least still talking. I'll pay you a thousand credits now and the rest upon delivery," Ebony rubbed his hands in eagerly fashion and squirmed in his chair before closing the offer:

"We have a deal?"

The stranger nodded, his black fedora shadowing a good portion of his face, no thanks to the back lighting from behind him. Ebony Hare could just make out part of the hit-man's broad, tan snout and black nose outside the shadow.. The long black coat concealed the strangers body; probably for theatrics, Downtown thought. He made a mental note to change the lighting and soon. To his puzzlement however, his eyes traced what looked to be dreadlocks dangling around the neck of the Mobian with a few resting on top of his shoulders. He wasn't quick sure if they were hair or flesh and blood tissue. But he was sure of something. _He couldn't be more than 3 foot 8 inches,_ Hare thought to himself, even guessing somewhat correctly just by sitting down while his next business associate stood. The last features he observed were the black pants with two cargo pockets on either side of his legs; his right thigh sporting a drop-leg pistol holster while his left held a similar rig configuration that carried what appeared to be his spare cells. The stranger stood on a pair of big black boots that were anchored down with two metal fasteners on either boot. His chest was covered with a vest of body armor, and under it a green shirt that traced up to his neck.

"So who's this skirt you want?" the dark figured asked, his voice never fluctuating to any degree of malice nor charm.

Hare couldn't help but bring more of a smile to the conversation and dealings. "Her name is Rogue. She's a white little bat but with a figure that is...all so nice. She can be dangerous in _soo_ many ways, so watch your back and that heart of yours–if you have one to throw around."

_What does he want with a spy? _the dark figure asked in surprise to himself. His information about her wasn't sketchy but wasn't clear either. He knew enough to be somewhat alarmed at Ebony's mentioning of her. In the times that courage beckoned him to come out from his hole–one he was desperately trying to dig himself out of–he did his emotional best to stay on the up-and-up of the new war, only paying attention to the things that could effect him.

"Last known whereabouts?" he asked, only sighing to himself.

Ebony leaned back in his chair, putting his shoeless feet on his desk, and clasped his hands behind his head. "Knothole Village I heard last. She seems to be hanging out with that Freedom Fighter crowd. They don't like her very much so it should be easy to snatch her up."

_Knothole!? _The dark figured breathed to himself crisply. _Do you really want to go that far and get this vermin's job done for him? _The stranger glanced over at Blackjack, who just gave him an encouraging nod under a carefree smile. _Better play along bub. You've got bigger fish to fry with this contact. Besides, _he_ won't be there..._he's_ home. _The stranger sulked, nodding in affirmation.

"Very well! To make your job easier me and my pal, Blackjack here, will be passing through there. We'll pick her up for you and give you the rest of your payment. If all goes well, we can definitely do more business. If not, and we have to grab her ourselves, payback won't be cheap. Get my drift?"

"I still owe for my debts, so I shouldn't disappoint." _Except for my true colors, you doper! Maybe I should kill him and his friend now? _the Mobian pondered to himself, feeling his black pistol in the concealed shoulder harness becoming heavier with vengeance rather than weight. His decision helped snap him back to the subtle reality. _Nope, need him alive to get to a certain individual. But what are you going to do about Rogue? _He took a little longer to let the thought roll around in his head, coming up with nothing for a conclusion. _You'll think of something._

Ebony Hare stood up, still sporting a smirk that irritated the black stranger. "Great!" he said, pulling out a stack of bills and tossing it onto the desk. Next, he picked up a stray pen and scribbled the grid position where the meet-and-swap would take place on a pad before handing it to the supposed hit-man. "We'll find you here," he grinned, "and we'll talk more business from there."

Never caring to count, the dark figure quickly pocketed the cash, tipping his hat as a symbol of goodwill, though he never had it with the likes he just took as bait, and shifted his way around to leave the square, particle board office. As this stranger turned to his left in order to exit, Ebony could finally confirm there were indeed dreadlocks around his neck. One of them had been crudely severed in half.. He was alarmed at first, but questions soon formed in his mind that killed his anxiety. _Strange, an echidna doing this work...and that mug sure does look familiar though, _he stated to himself.

The stranger closed the door behind him and headed towards the door that lead out to the streets of Station Square from the one-story lobby. The site that Ebony had chosen for his new underground operations–like most people in the rabbit's line of work–was buried in a part of town that no one ventured around without a gun...and still made one wish they filled out their wills.. Sunlight didn't shine through the windowed doors, for the decaying, abandoned buildings across the street harbored shade as if it were a precious commodity. The rabbit's shop, a day labor business that was used to launder money in from his "lemon juice" sales–and was illegal as all get out, even in the time of war–was a nesting ground for those who looked to be villains, and others just looking to be rich by means that weren't clean. But the rabbit's accumulated friends were what interested the echidna and his skills that took life without remorse above all. Those friends happened to be a considerable influence the war, and the echidna was finally reverting back to his old-self to make competition in the game of life-and-greed. He was now depending on his long absence from this type of work, along with his new face that he grimaced at every time he saw himself, to easily take him inside these rotten underground operations...and possibly to keep up with a promise he held for many years, but felt slip away in his heart.

_A promise..._ Facing his thoughts in a glooming manner, he sighed and pressed on to the windowed doors.

There, he noticed a amber-furred female fox waiting on the sofa to his right, sitting with her legs tightly crossed. She was dressed casually; a high-riding skirt and a tight sleeveless blouse that exposed the broad line of her cleavage from the wide crescent cut over her chest. If he felt normal and past his cold, betraying feelings, he would have thought nothing of it to gawk further down her figure. Maybe even try to peer under her skirt. But he only nodded to her as he went outside, watching the girl just stare at the him as he strode out, his body rigid and expressionless of feelings. Her face was mixed with what seemed like sympathy and awe as she couldn't get over the long scar that slashed across his snout, driving down from the center of his broad muzzle and across his cheek. She also couldn't help but noticed two smaller streaks behind his right eye. Her mind marveled at the quarter inch that separated the lines which grew bold in contour, resting just mere inches from his eye and lightening as they traced back towards his first lock. She remained speechless as her trailing eyes lost the dark figure from around the wall.

"Yo Foxy, get in here!"

* * *

"_Alllleeuuutiiiann..."_

He shot up from his pillow in a heartbeat, finding himself sweating profusely in the cool room. He panted as he adjusted his eyes to his darkened surroundings, feeling his heart pounding against his chest wall. His dreads pranced around his back as he fought to slow his breathing, spurting whimpers and light grunts from every exhale. The blue glow from the early traces of sunlight fought through the drawn shades, only able to draw silhouettes of the furniture upon the walls. He rubbed his hand gently over his head, whipping his face from the sweat of his dream.

His name still echoed in his mind. The voice, he realized with another deep breath, was feminine. He knew it sounded familiar, but for the life of him he couldn't place the image of the girl in his drowsy head. Regret seeped into his racing heart from the vacant search, tightening a haunting, longing feeling he had. He wished it would go away.

He toured his heavy eyes around the still blurry room, stopping when the digital clock on the dresser to his right pierced through lifting darkness. It read five-twenty. With another pressing rub of his head that followed down his long, deep scar, he realized grudgingly that he needed to get ready for his day. So far it was off to a better start than others he had experienced. And already today somehow felt different in the early hours of the morning. Something called to him that made his yearning spirit profess the feeling he felt.

The echidna wanted nothing more but for that feeling to ring true...he'd been wanting for so long.

Sighing, he leaned over and reached out with his left hand at the other object that laid beside him in the bed. "Hey babe, need to get up for–"

His hand fell on the cold pillow that laid beside him. Somehow, in the night, he must of placed it there as he tossed and turned through his slumber. Through his haunting dream. He snapped his head over, looking at his hand and the pillow as his lips, eyes, and soon his body started to tremble with grief. The warm body he thought he was going to arouse wasn't there. Instead, nothingness that was covered with the white sheets. He trembled at first at the sight of emptiness in the bed that he now sat in, but with his tightening chest and his burdening heart, he soon placed his hands over his face...and wept a mournful cry that only the walls would hear.

* * *

Julie-Su wasn't in one of her happier moods and she was on the prowl for the reason why. When she rounded the corner of a hut, her tempered disposition honed in to source of her anger. Rogue. The bat had pulled Julie's tail for the last time. The pink echidna stopped just paces away from the hut and noticed right off that the thief, with a good set of curves, was getting a little too friendly with a certain blue hedgehog. _"First my Knuckles, and now Sonic. Maybe Sally might come to her senses now and just get rid of her; send her back to Station Square."_

Julie-Su was about to let her presence be known, but before she could let loose her rage, someone else far off from the right of her called out to the same trouble maker first.

"Miss Rogue, we need to talk," came the low but cool voice. Julie-Su's heart skipped a beat when she turned and quickly sized up the dark figure standing in the open field. Something about him made her instincts come alive.

Sonic glanced over Rogue's shoulder and winked at the dark figure before turning his attention back to her. "Looks like our little chat is done for now. See ya' around babe." With a fast smirk across his face, Sonic left the small field the way he normally does...in a blur

Rogue turned around to see the new arrival to Knothole City. Her gaze caught the flapping over coat of the dark figure, who had his hands resting at his sides, and wearing a straight face that met all business. The look made her tense for a brief moment, but she calmed herself down, trying ever so hard not show any hints of fear. "So what does a boy like you want with me?" she said, placing her hands over her hips.

"Not me, my employer," replied the dark stranger, his voice never flinching from the dead monotone he took.

"And who is your employer, Stranger?" asked Julie-Su, "Not that I don't mind you taking Batty here, but a reason would be nice." At that span of time of waiting for the dark figures' reply, she desperately wished Sonic had stayed instead of jetting. She could see the figure, even under all the black, was an echidna. The waving dreads and the tan muzzle gave that away, but she had a different idea of what was under the furred skin.

Sally Acorn slowly made her entrance into the stand off behind Julie from around a hut, causing the stranger to fidget for some oddly reason that had now put Sally on high alert. The squirrel made her way to the field after Sonic had told her that Rogue was in some sort of trouble with some "dude" in black. With the warning came her request that he'd stay close and keep an eye on things before she went to see the new arrival. Most Mobians around Knothole wouldn't mind seeing Rogue getting her come-upings, but serving the right justice was in her best interest.

With Sally's arrival, the echidna entertained just briefly the notion that he shouldn't have come, unknownly his expression changed to fit the beckoning thought. "Mr. Hare wants Rogue and I'm here on his behalf. How I get her is up to you all's corporation," he replied evenly, hoping they would cooperate.

"That wouldn't be a _Mr._ Downtown Ebony Hare would it?" Julie-Su asked deliberately slow, remembering the last time she had the pleasure–or miss-pleasure of dealing with him.

The echidna turned his head slightly toward Julia-Su. "The rabbit in the cheap suite?" he coldly quipped. Julie-Su nodded in her reply. "Afraid so, ma'am," he conceded, his voice turning eerily serious.

Never breaking her stare from the echidna in black, Julie-Su leaned back to Sally and whispered a request that she hoped the Princess would fulfill in a heartbeat. "Go get my boyfriend and do it fast."

"You got it," came the squirrel's whisper reply.

As Sally left, watching her back in the process, Julie-Su continued to barter for time with the other echidna. "Look, again, as much as I don't like Rogue here," she began, smirking at the white bat, "I am afraid that she is with us and she can't go along with you kicking and screaming; much to my displeasure."

_Great, she has been promoted to comrade status. Well..._ The echidna pulled his long handled blaster from his drop-leg holster and pointed it squarely at Rogue. His thumb navigated the selector switch from safe to stun on the left side of the weapon all the while taking a steady bead on the female bat as he placed his finger over the trigger.

Julie-Su's muscle memory never lapsed with the stranger's draw instigating the retrieval of her double barreled blaster from her boot. Clenching both hands solidly around the grip and a digit over the trigger-guard for extra control, she took a trained, steady aim on the dark echidna. "Okay, drop it whoever-you-are, and do it now!"

The dark figure twitched his head further over towards Julie-Su, his heart pounding a little faster when she produced her weapon. "Look," he began somewhat annoyed, "I need her, and I'm taking her anyway I can right now. Besides, I'll have her back by nightfall in one piece."

"I don't care!" Julie fired back, "New guy in town or not, you don't go pulling weapons on people here. We have a justice code here, unlike a certain fat Overlander, and you might be seeing it real soon. Now drop your weapon and any others you're carrying!"

Rogue was shaking in her boots by now but was trying hard not to show it. There were two gun pointing maniacs not more than ten feet from her, and both didn't seem to like her very much.

_This was a bad idea, bub! You should have..._ the echidna was about to tell himself that he should have stayed home that week, when a voice came from behind him:

"I would insist that you comply with her request fellow, echidna," said Knuckles, approaching cautiously from the rear of the dark clothed echidna.

The echidna squeezed his eyes shut in annoyance, the twin scars behind his right eye almost conjoined into one as he did so. The odds were stacking up against him as more people came into play; and it wasn't sitting well with him. _This was a very bad idea!_ he hammered at himself. Forcing his eyes opened he began to turn around. Who he saw behind him next changed his whole paid purpose in Knothole in an instant. _No! It can't be! What's he doing here? _he questioned himself in disbeliefhis voice echoing at whom he was seeing with his widened eyes. He wouldn't have asked the question if the echidna his eyes were locked with hadn't bore the white mark of a Guardian...and a particular young one at that.

The crest burned deep within his brain, provoking his next thought that he couldn't hold back with the best of his inner strength.

"What are YOU doing here!?" the stranger asked harshly, shifting his stance towards Knuckles as he lowered his blaster to the ground.

"Looks like I'm bring peace to--"

"NO! WHAT ARE_ YOU_ DOING _HERE_! You are supposed to back home defending it!" the Echidna shouted, pointing hard at Knuckles with his free hand as he almost bolted towards him, stopping himself before he did.

Knuckles was now locked in a staring contest with one of his own kind who seemed to very interested with his purpose in life. This echidna was now challenging Knuckles' sacred duties back on Angel Island and it wasn't sitting well with him. At that tense instant he wondered if his father, Locke, had sent this dark figure to bring him back. He couldn't put it past him.

"Did Locke send you for me?" Knuckles asked, his voice deepening with his ever present rage.

"No," said the stranger, his voice raising a disable, "but I am sure he'd be glad I snatched you up anyways," He held a quick pause before dropping his voice back to one of resolve. "Maybe I should bag you instead of the Bat," he said as he motioned to Rogue behind him with a wavering thumb. Julie-Su was now lowering her weapon with the same shock that Knuckles was feeling.

As the dark figure narrowed his eyes, debating of what he was going to do next, he noticed the surrounding trees began to Knuckles' back start to wave against the wind. His instincts overpowered reason and he found himself maneuvering his blaster towards the tree-line, his finger already depressing the trigger. His move was fruitless. With one hard pull from his hand the blaster was gone. All he saw was a blue blur that violently kicked up the wind so hard that it flapped his coat in the harsh turbulent air, blowing his fedora off his head in the process, exposing his stubbed dread lock on his left side that fluttered around with its brethren.

Julie-Su just froze in awe upon seeing the scars on his face.

Leaving nothing to chance Knuckles pounced on him with an assaulting leap, landing his right fist across the echidna's jaw as he clamped onto the black coat with the other. The crushing feeling and sound of flesh-on-flesh and bone-on-bone was unmistakable to Knuckles, and quite possibly to the gathering audience. Pure fighting energy bolted through Knuckles' body as his assailing blow sent the stranger going over onto his left side. Somewhere in this combating ballet, he felt guilty that it actually had to come to this. But the thought collapsed along with his trumped battle plan. To his surprise the stranger wasn't without his tricks. Using his falling momentum as a boost, he slammed his right open hand into Knuckles' chest, propelling him high in the air to get him clear off his chest. Letting his dreads work their magic, Knuckles' moment of flight was short lived as he glided back towards the ground and planted both feet firmly into a low, striding defensive stance. Fists out, low, close-in. Ready.

Changing tactics to the offensive with a split second of judgement, he was about to close the gap between them until the echidna offered his next move as rethinking point to Knuckles' upcoming assault. Throwing his coat off in one fast, fluid motion, the stranger's hands seized two blasters from their holsters inside the sleeves of the coat, and unveiled them to all of Knothole. To Knuckles' adding anxiety, wrapped around the echidna's chest was an additional pistol, clutched in a tight fitting shoulder holster, exposing the polymer handle only as a reference of what it was.

_Great! Three more. How on Mobius am I going to disarm this guy?_ He grumbled in the air. His prayers were answered by a certain, speeding blue hedgehog yet again.

The dark echidna felt the wind begin to kick up again. He tried to prepare himself for what was to come, but he knew he was too late to react for a second time. _Shame on me... _he scolded at himself for making the same mistake twice.With the same hard tug as the last, his two back-up blasters disappeared in a sea of blue. Letting one threat go and concentrating on the other, he turned his head back around to keep track of Knuckles. He was only quick enough to see the Guardian drop down from the air, slamming him to the ground that expelled a grunt from his lungs.

_Wow, he's fast! _His inner-self struggled to concluded after his head impacted the soft, grassy floor.

Knuckles didn't skip a beat while his opponent was stunned. Taking a firm grasp at the handle, he pulled the last gun out the shoulder harness and threw it behind him and out of the fray. Sally skirted back when the long barreled pistol bounced on the ground and landed nearly at her feet. Knuckles then grabbed hold of the echidna's body armor with his left hand. The black armor had four horizontal ribs that were meant to absorb plasma fire by displacing the heat and energy impact. But now it was a nice thing to hold on to. With his free right fist, he swung at the echidna's head, but his effort was cut short by a block from his opponent's left arm, side swiping Knuckles' strike away and at the same span of time, upper-cutting Knuckles with his right open palm dead center at his chest.

This sent Knuckles flying through the air and falling just short at the stranger's feet. In a blink of an eye, the other echidna got up and moved into Knuckles, his hands opened and hovering down in front of him, anticipating anything at this point When the he moved in close enough though to somehow manage a hold on Knuckles, he was met by a driving strain that soon became intense with pain just above his knee. The stranger grunted to the sharp pain as he fell to the ground, catching a glance of Knuckles' right foot implanting against his right knee. Not a moment was spared when Knuckles shot up to his feet and posed himself to pounce on his opponent yet again. But the echidna was just as fast. With his right leg going under his left knee, the echidna shot up quickly, putting his naked red hands in a close defensive position as he gained his balance, spreading his feet wide. Letting his opponent decide his next stance, Knuckles brought his mittens up to his face and narrowed his eyes to the scarred echidna, taunting what he had perceived as the ego-maniac that thrived inside him.

They closed the gap between them at a feverish rate. Knuckles struck out his right fist, but the other echidna pivoted his torso to the side, causing Knuckles to overshoot his swing, leaving him exposed. Before his opponent could deliver a sweeping blow from his right hand, Knuckles--with his right arm still following through his first punch, back-handed the stranger with his left hand. With the other echidna stunned from it, Knuckles then cocked his right fist and pushed it hard into the echidna's face. The force of the punch created two, light puncture marks as his knuckled spikes implanted into the stranger's cheek. This sent the echidna back to the ground once more, and without giving him another chance, Knuckles sprawled on top of him and took a stronger grasp on the echidna's shirt collar. There, he cocked his right fist, ready to hopefully give the final blow. However the other Echidna was too quick. He blocked it again and opened palmed Knuckles in the chest. His hopes of loosening Knuckles's grip the second time was partially a success, but the outcome this time was not what he wanted...and never wanted. Knuckles did fly back and away like before, but instead, his grip on the stranger's collar caused the shirt to rip down the center, stopping only when the fabric met the resistence of the body armor.

Just when Knuckles was becoming one with the Mobian gravity, his emotions of victory fell to utter shock. During those few seconds of suspended animation, his eyes gazed on the newly exposed chest of the echidna. For a brief moment, he thought he saw white over the red fur of the echidna. It was then that Knuckles' eyes slowly widen as gravity came back as factor in the fight. Disbelief had muscled its way past his fighting sprit, commanding his mouth to gap open in the shock he perceived was coming after the fight, hoping the his opponent hadn't witnessed the change in his face.

But the pinned echidna saw Knuckles' changed expression. A sudden feeling of fear sent shivers throughout his body, his eyes widening in terror at what he realized Knuckles' had seen. At what was about to be discovered of him that he tried so long to hid when others told him not to. But something sparked inside him. Something that felt of yearning to seize the moment to surrender filter into his psyche. And before Knuckles' slammed his fist across his face, he unknownly smiled before the blow was dealt.

Then came blackness.

Knuckles let the urge to breath the sigh of victory die as the echidna went limp under his legs. His disbelief trumped his next action. Pulling back the flap of fabric he expose what he feared he witnessed on the echidna's upper chest during that moment stillness. A white crest.

_This can't be...a Guardian!? _he shouted and stuttered out to himself in horror.

By now, Sally, Antoine, Sonic, and Tails had gathered around as they watched some hit-man get his tail handed to him. "Antoine, restrain him before he wakes--" Sally began to order, only to be cut off by a very frustrated Knuckles.

"...Who are you!" he shouted while pulling back on the echidna's torn shirt, lifting the limp body off the ground.

"Ah, hey Rad Red, he can't hear since--"

This time, before Sonic could state the obvious, Knuckles repeated his last phrase to the point of crying. "WHO ARE YOU!?"

Julie-Su stepped forward before anyone else could reach him, knowing something was dreadfully wrong from the sound of her beloved Knuckles' voice. "Honey, what's wrong?" she asked with a very sincere voice, hoping to calm her lover down. When she got closer, she could see why he was almost to the point of tears.

"He's a Guardian Julie-Su!" he said, choking back his emotions. He took a long breath and repeated his findings to himself in disbelief. "He's a guardian..."

* * *

"I don't get it Knuckles," said Tails as he gazed at the wooden floor of Uncle Chucks' Café, "I thought we'd traced back your whole linage of your family?"

A couple of hours had passed and Knuckles found himself just starring at his grape soda that was warming up with each passing minute in his hands. The pain from his chest had finally let up from the fight he had undertook. _He sure hits like my Father from the few times we spared, _he thought to himself. Tales was right, he was sure that there weren't any other grandparents that had been kept secret from him. And for the Guardian that they had locked up in the jail; he looked too young to be any of that. So who was he?

"I don't know Miles," Knuckles said, nervously scratching his forehead, "Antoine said he'd come get me when he came to. So, hopefully we can get some answers."

"And why is he working for Ebony?" festered Julie-Su from beside him, "Something is not right about this."

Knuckles just shook his head as he took another pull from his drink.

* * *

Antoine D' Coolette stepped inside the main holding block, which didn't have much in the way of cells. The blue uniformed coyote held a tray of food, mostly containing grapes and other fruits for Knothole City's newest resident in the jail. As he crossed the corridor to the middle cell Antoine could see the new echidna in town was still out cold, lying motionless on his left side on the small bed with his back against the wall. Frowning at the limp body, Antoine knelt down and started to slid the tray underneath the floor bar. Time stood still all of a sudden as his hand was restricted by strong grasp from inside the cell. His head shot up to see the echidna at his nose, bearing a look of great discontent. He didn't even hear him come off the bed.

"Give me the keys–now!" the echidna demanded with a harsh, stern voice.

"I'm zorry Monsieur, I cannot do zhat,"replied the Royal Guardsmen in his thick French accent.

The echidna took his free hand and reached over the floor bar, grabbing Antoine's arm with it, then moving the it and Antoine up to a little higher level of conversation. "Give me the keys now, or it's not going to be fun."

"No, Monsieur! Now let me go!"

Antoine struggled to release the grip from the very agitated echidna but the stranger's hand was steadfast. The Guardian pulled Antoine's arm further inside the cell and slammed him up against the cold steel bars. The impact stunned the coyote for a brief moment. The echidna then pushed the coyote's arm forward before once again bringing him back against the bars, all the while extending his fist through the cell at Antoine's head. The move put him out cold in an instant with his body slumping to the floor.

The echidna quickly grabbed the keys around Antoine's belt, and reached around the bars to unlocked the cell. After freeing himself, he proceeded to put his captor's body in the cell before locking the door and throwing the keys down the short hallway, making sure that someone would see them. Giving no forethought about the subtle feeling he had for Antoine, the echidna slowly made his way through the complex, looking for any signs where his gear might be. He soon came upon a room that said, "evidence and seizure," _Got to be here, _he considered to himself before kicking down the door. _Time to say good-bye again with your silence..._

Moments later, Bunnie gracefully strolled into the jail as best as her mechanical legs could manage, her two pistols riding on her hips as she wondered why Antoine hadn't returned. She found the reason slumped inside the cell that their visitor was supposed to be in. Without a moments hesitation, she ran to the entrance wall and pushed the alarm that would soon bring most of Knothole's heavy hitters to the jail. But the first to show up wasn't Sonic as usual, but Knuckles, knowing full well what probably had happened.

He saw Bunnie helping Antoine to his feet as he passed by the cell. "How's he doing?"

"Little bump on the head 'sug, but he'll be alright."

"Ohw, my head," came a groaning Antoine. "Unhand me Bunnie, I needz to getz zhat..."

Knuckles looked over at Antoine as he marched by them. "Stay here 'Twan, I'll take care of him," he said as he headed towards the door with his brows slumped in determination.

As he reached the hall to the busted door of the evidence room, he heard the other echidna operating his weapons and securing them in their holsters. _Will he shoot me if I enter. Probably not, but nevertheless, make noise so he isn't trigger happy,_ he cautioned himself. He shuffled his feet through the door and gazed upon the echidna who was busy putting his body armor on over his ripped green shirt. Knuckles noticed that Antoine didn't even bothered to secure all of the scarred echidna's gear, but instead, left it all scattered on the table. _Need to talk to him about that._

"So you're just gonna to leave?" Knuckles asked.

The figure glanced over his left shoulder and shrugged. "Why shouldn't I, looks like you have everything under control." Checking his last blaster, he quickly holstered it into one of his sleeves of the long black coat that laid upon the table. He then dawned on his shoulder rig that had the other pistol securely holstered, spare mags at the ready on the right side.

"You gonna apologize to Antoine before you go?" inquired Knuckles with a sharp voice.

"Why? He could've just given me the keys!" the echidna quipped.

"He has a duty you know–"

"...Yea, and so do YOU young Guardian!" he shouted, turning and marching right up to Knuckles, squinting his eyes with rage. "You haven't answered my question, why are you here?"

"I'm fighting Eggman to help save Angel Island."

"So, why aren't you doing it at home instead of here," the other Guardian asked, "and whose guarding the emerald and the Floating Island anyways?"

"The Dark Legion is–"

"...The Dark Legion!" shouted the now furious Echidna. "Sounds like you are doing a great job, oh Prominent One!" Turning back to the table with a curt grumble, he grabbed his long black coat and struggled into.

"Well, partly. But, we've identified the common enemy and the Dark Legion is helping me to secure the future," Knuckles stated, purposely forgetting the civil war end of the conflict.

The echidna considered Knuckles' sound reply as he adjusting his collar and smoothed out the wrinkles. His agreement was swallowed by his own, haunting question. _So, are you gonna pop the big question there Guardian? _he asked at the table.

"But who are you to talk about sacred duties when you wear the white crest?" Knuckles jumped.

The echidna put his hands flat on the table in front of him and sighed. "I made some choices long ago, dear Knuckles." _And Locke still keeps secrets from his family, _he added in his mind.

_He knows my name? _Knuckles breathed out in his psyche. "Then who are you to talk about my--"

The echidna turned to Knuckles with a stare that could have burned a hole through him. "...Because you have a destiny that I could NEVER HAVE!" he growled, his teeth chattering from the sudden explosion of anger. Shifted back to the table, fighting to slow the thoughts that were racing through his mind.

The cat was out of the bag now. Knuckles knew through the history of his ancestors that they all had a destiny that they "had" to fulfill. His came through a dream that his father had envisioned with a little assist from the Ancient Walkers. He still questioned if it would ever come true from all that has happened and the choices he'd made.

But here before him was another Guardian, and he was sure that this echidna was.

An idea sparked in his mind. One he couldn't disregard. With all the space time continuum that has been happening over the years, the Guardian in black could possible a Grandfather from another zone. It was a possibility.

But it didn't explain the choices the dark echidna said he'd made.

All this sparked the prime question that the other echidna was waiting for. "Who are you fellow Guardian?" Knuckles asked, his voice digressing to calmness and sincerity.

The other Guardian shifted his head back towards Knuckles, his face expressionless, "Locke still keeping secrets? What of Lady Lara-Le? Is she keeping things from you as well?" he asked, his scarred face putting words to meaning. "Have you ever considering if she wanted you to grow up happy?"

A surprised stare. "How did you know what my mother wanted for me?" Knuckles gasped, his mouth plummeting to the floor.

The other Guardian sighed before speaking. "I know a lot about you Knuckles. I know a lot about you then I ever care too sometimes. If you want the answers then let the light of truth be your guide. That's what you have been taught, right?" Knuckles just nodded his head. "Then you can start by asking your father about me. Tell him that you saw another Guardian and that we had this conversation, and then you can tell him all the scars you have seen upon my face." His last sentence came out as a breath. "Then I want you to carefully watch for the look of sadness in his eyes."

"And if he gives me the run around?" Knuckles asked, crossing his arms.

"Then you best forget about me!" he said, turning sharply and stepping closer to Knuckles. "You forget about me and you continue on with your sacred duties, and your much happier life than mine."

The stranger turned his back once more and was about to dawn on his fedora when Knuckles decided that he had had enough of taking deceptions for answers. He grabbed the shoulder of the other Guardian and spun him around. Grabbing both sides of his collar, Knuckles then pressed his snout closer to his unknown family member's, triggering his inner chaos energy to let the fire of his determination for answers be felt.

"_So he does have the power! Locke was successful..." _the other guardian concluded rather quickly, feeling the slight burning sensation across his chest.

"WHO ARE YOU AND DON'T LET ME ASK AGAIN!" Knuckles harshly demanded.

The Guardian starred back into Knuckles's eyes, seeing the frustration that was painted on them. His were wide now as well, and searching for what he was going to do or say next. Knowing full well of what happens if his family's ultimatums are challenged, and feeling the power that Knuckles possessed through his coat, he decided it was worth the risk of letting loose the forgotten past.

"Do you really want to know? You might get hurt if you do?" the echidna calmly stated

"And it might hurt me more if I don't!" Knuckles quickly retorted.

The Guardian shifted his gaze to the floor for a brief instant, searching for what he was about to say next. Looking back up and with a stare of confidence in his decision, he took in a deep breath:

"Knuckles," he began, "my name is Aleutian...and I am your brother."

Knuckles' eyes went wide. The shock of the words dredging through his mind sent shivers to his hands that commanded the release of the other echidna. Backing himself up against the wall, he braced it as if he was going to fall. _No!_ he exclaimed to himself, _this isn't true. I only have a half brother not a full one. Why would my parents keep him a secret from me?_

"That's a lie!" was the only thing Knuckles could spat out from the horror that he felt.

"I'm afraid not dear brother," Aleutian shakingly said as he paused to lift himself off from the table. He waited a little while longer to make his words hit home. "My Father is the Guardian Locke. My Mother the Lady Lara-Le...the same as yours. Knuckles...I'm brother Aleutian."

Knuckles just stood there, his month opened in utter shock. As the questions raced through his mind, Aleutian grabbed his hat, pulled it hard over his head, and started to walk out; like he did several years ago. Passing his stunned brother he stopped, his eyes lower with his heart. Aleutian hung his head down in deep sympathy in the course of his feelings, placing his hand over Knuckles's shoulder to comfort him.

"I _am_ sorry that you had to find like this," Aleutian said with a quiet whisper before taking his leave out of the room, leaving his brother stunned against the wall.

* * *

The mid-afternoon sun grazed his scarred face with it's warmth as Aleutian walked out of the jail. The wind had picked up a little and he could feel it through his dreads. As he turned to the east, he noticed Antoine looking around while he was hunched over Bunnie's shoulder. It wasn't going to be easy getting out of Knothole.

"You there, zstop...!" Antoine shouted, struggle to get free from Bunnie to teach Aleutian a new lesson.

"Hold it Antoine," said Knuckles coming up from behind Aleutian, "let him go."

Aleutian turned his head back to Knuckles and nodded his thanks. As he past Antoine, he stopped and let his expression turn to one of sorrow. "You are very brave, sir, for resisting me. I am very sorry for any discomfort I have caused you and to your friends. Please take my apology at will."

And with that, he continued out of Knothole City.

"So you're just going to leave?" Knuckles shouted, the anger in his voice could be heard thundering across the field; Sonic, and Julie-Su taking note of it as they stepped onto the field.

"That old question again," Aleutian said, looking back at Knuckles with a smirk, "I have things to do, and you definitely don't want my company," he said as he turned away once more, trying to let things end somewhat on a good note.

"Yes I do, and if you leave, I will track you–"

"...DON'T!" Aleutian screamed as he turned around yet again, pointing at his brother with his gloveless right hand, "you may not like what you see of me, and I don't care to expose you to it. You have a lot going on for you here, and if you are sincere in defeating Eggman here instead of home, then stick to your duties instead of me!"

"Jeeze, you'd think they're siblings the way they're fighting." came Sonic from behind Julie-Su.

"I think there might be something to that, Sonic," replied Julie-Su, catching what Aleutian was saying.

Aleutian gave Knuckles one last hard look before turning away from him again. Knuckles watched as his new found brother disappeared into the forest. At least he thought he was.

Julie-Su gracefully walked up to him and placed her hand over his shoulder. "Who was that Knuckles?" she asked in a soft whisper.

Knuckles just looked down at the ground as he reached up with his left hand and placed it over hers before he replied in a whisper. "I don't know...but I want answers." He then looked over at Sally who showed up in time to see the dark echidna leave to her great pleasure. "Sally, get the ship ready, I need to go to Angel Island for some answers."

"It's still dangerous to go Knuckles–"

"I don't care!" Knuckles barked out with his frustrations, "if I have too, I'll go myself! I want answers and I wanted them yesterday!"

Sally considered his request then nodded her approval.

Julie-Su looked at Knuckles with sadness in her eyes. Something was dreadfully wrong and he was hiding it from her. For once there might've be a good reason behind it, she thought, but she wanted to go with him to comfort and hopefully in due time, to find out what was troubling her equal.

* * *

_You idiot! You know he's going to be coming back after you._ Aleutian shouted to himself._ You left way too many questions unanswered to keep him away from you. _

He was about a quarter mile away from the city, his mind racing from seeing his brother after so many years; grown and not where he was suppose to be. _But knowing what your father said that he could do, did you really want to find that out on your own? For all you know, he could be thinking that you're some sort of an imposter anyways, _came his subconscious.

His ripped shirt was starting to flap around in the breeze, exposing his white mark of righteousness that he wished he was never born with. He covered it back up quickly so it wouldn't remind him of the shame that he felt:

_But the ones knowing of my shame are my parents, and what is left of my friends. But my friends have never considered me as dishonorable. Ever! _

_Now my brother has seen me. What does he think of me? What _will_ he think of me when he finds out what has happened, and who've I'd become? I hope this encounter hasn't set things in motion that could be very bad for Mobius. Hopefully he forgets about me...if, he does._

_You can't stop freewill Aleutian. That was something that you'd fought for and believed in a long time ago. That was your choice...remember. Now look at you! You're a lost warrior without any direction. Just a loner, doing a cold job for what, self-righteousness? Revenge? You definitely haven't been helping the _cause_ like you did once before._

He stopped and turned to look at the setting sun behind him. The warmth that it was still generating made Aleutian wonder if this was an omen. An omen that felt like this day was the end his cold ways and to begin a renewed start. But to what? The wind was starting to pick up a little more and it helped soothed the tears that were starting to stream down his scarred face. _After all these years, it's now hurting, It has never hurt before, but today of all days, it is now. Maybe you should've done what she asked of you!? _The last phrase made his heart sink. _Her..._

Just then he heard a speeding hover car traveling behind him. He turned around to see a very expensive, silver limo tearing through the forest. _Ah great! I forgot about him._ It was Downtown Ebony Hare and Aleutian knew he was looking for Rogue and possibly him too. _That is a tough crowd back there Aleutian. I'm sure they can take care of themselves, _he concluded to himself.

He started back on his journey home but his subconscious stopped him yet again. _But Blackjack is definitely with him, and Blackjack could hurt someone badly before he's taken down. _Aleutian thought hard, only realizing:

_And they probably torched your hover car since you didn't meet them for some reason._ _It's a long walk back home, Aleutian._

Aleutian took a deep breath and turned back for Knothole City.

* * *

Julie-Su was rounding a hut with her backpack in her hands, motivating towards the hangar-bay, her face boarder-lining on frustration and puzzlement. Her journey was cut short when a big grey hand took hold around her throat and lifted her off the ground. When she blinked from the reaction of the sudden jolt, he eyes fixated on a very familiar dog face.

"Want to see if you can escape from my hands, there Dollface. No place to catch your fall this time!" came the gruff voice of Blackjack.

Julie-Su dropped her bag and reached for her boot where she kept her double-barrel blaster. Blackjack caught the move out from the corner of his eye and increased the tension around her throat. She stopped her movement instantly and began reaching for Blackjack's hand, trying to pull it away from her throat. The constricting grip began to cut off precious oxygen to her lungs.

"Not so fast there little one," scorned Blackjack with a smile.

"Way to go Blackjack! Nice way to get us a barging chip," came Ebony Hare from behind him. "GATHER AROUND FREEDOM FIGHTERS AND LET ME DEMONSTRATE REAL MUSCLE!" he decried at the top of his lungs.

Knuckles' wasn't far behind Julie-Su when the request got his attention in a hurry, sensing the voice sounded somewhat familiar. He ran to the open circle where he had first met Aleutian and stopped dead to see Julie-Su dangling in the air, grasping at the arms of a goon that was strangling her. "Put her down!" he shouted with venom in his voice.

"Ah, our fearless leader is making demands," squinted Ebony.

Sonic bolted up behind Knuckles, and sported a crocked grin. "Actually I am the fearless leader and _I_ say you put the girl down."

"How about this, you give me a certain Bat named Rogue and I'll make sure Blackjack here, doesn't snap her neck off," fired back Ebony, showing that he was holding the cards.

"Oh, her again...," grunted Julie-Su with what little air she could breath out, "...just take her and go away...please?"

Rogue made her way towards the shouting contest and stepped into the open, her hands on her hips and flashing a smile. "What do you want, Downtown?"

Ebony Hare turned and smiled at her. "Why you of course. Some friends of mine would _love_ to speak with you."

"Ah, let me think about that for a second, Ebony." she said, putting her finger on her lips.

"Oh, great...I'm doomed!" grunted Julie-Su,

Knuckles was rolling his fist and getting himself ready jump on Blackjack when a cool, calm, and collective voice came out from the wood work:

"Put the girl down Blackjack," ordered Aleutian firmly, standing a good ways into the clearing with one of his guns pointing at Blackjack. It was the same weapon Knuckles saw him holster in the shoulder harness before they had their "talk." Aleutian held the fat barreled weapon with one hand as he steadied the sights over Blackjack's head. His finger was placed gently over the trigger.

"Oh, YOU!" shouted Ebony with surprise, "I see you couldn't get the girl like you promised. So, WHERE"S MY MONEY!?"

"Is that all you care about Mr. Hare?" Aleutian said, his voice not even fluctuating from the added stress of the situation.

"Mostly. Now give me my–"

"...Blackjack, put down the girl now, or I can't guarantee your safety," interrupted Aleutian, raising his voice a disable to get his ultimatum across. Centering his front site on the head of Blackjack, he placed both hands around the handle of the pistol while adjusting his right leg back behind him. _Come on Blackjack...do it...let her go, _he pleaded in his mind.

"Blackjack works for me, not you!" fired off Ebony Harre, "Blackjack, snap her neck!" he ordered with a hard nod.

Knuckles turned his attention towards Blackjack. He clenched his fist and lowered himself to jump on top of the grey bulldog. As he did so, Julie-Su felt Blackjack's grip increase and it was making it hard for her to stay conscious. She looked over to Knuckles with a look of sorrow and defeat, and forced out what she thought was her last dying breath, "...knuckles..."

I loud snap was heard across the open field. Knuckles's heart skipped three beats upon hearing it and thought he was too late to save the one he loved.

Julie-Su fell to the ground on her side, coughing hard, and trying desperately to breath. Down with her went Blackjack...lifeless.

Ebony saw the end result of his hired muscle and he didn't like the outcome. He started to reach inside his coat for the double barreled revolver that he kept in a small holster. If he hadn't stopped dead, he would have been as Aleutian turned his pistol in the rabbit's direction:

"Don't even think about, Ebony. I am pretty good at splitting _hairs_ with this." he said, adding the pun to show that he was in total control.

Ebony Hare slowly retracted his hand from the inside of his jacket, holding it open to hopefully satisfy Aleutian.

"Now go!" Aleutian ordered.

"What about my money!?"

Aleutian took the wade of cash out from the pocket of his coat, bit down on a single bill, and pulled it out from under the clip before throwing the rest at Ebony's feet.

The rabbit picked it up and looked over at Aleutian. "Why you keepin' that one?"

"Bill for the bullet. Now go!" Aleutian growled, still keeping his weapon pointed at Downtown.

Hare turned with a grunt and started walking off when Aleutian stopped him cold yet once again:

"Wait...you're forgetting something?"

"What do you mean!?"

"Take your trash with you," Aleutian said, motioning to the lifeless body of Blackjack, his head looking oddly different from before.

Ebony Hare reluctantly walked over to the body, grabbed the back of his collar--that was now stained in his purple blood–and started dragging him towards the limo that was beyond the woods. "You'll pay for this Echidna!" he barked as he huffed the large dog across the ground.

"I still owe for my debts," the Guardian said, his voice deepened with disgust.

After seeing Ebony Hare walk away to the forest, Aleutian holstered his weapon inside his coat, and walked over to where Knuckles was helping Julie-Su. Sally was about to approach him when Aleutian shot her a cold gaze that made her stop dead in her tracks. She almost trembled at the scarred look. With his head down he could see Julie-Su was breathing hard to replenishing the oxygen that was robbed from her lungs. "Is she going to be okay?" he asked Knuckles with a comforting but stern voice.

What Aleutian didn't see was Knuckles clutching Julie-Su's blaster that already had the gas canisters loaded into the twin barrels. _Good girl! _

"Yea. Just a little rattled but she'll be fine." And with that, Knuckles spun around and doused Aleutian with a cloud of gas. Aleutian stumbled backwards, stopping the muscle memory in his arm from going to his pistol to shoot his brother. He coughed to expel the sleeping gas from his lungs, but his site was becoming blurry with each passing second.

Before Aleutian passed out onto the ground, he looked over at his brother as his vision was fading away:

"So this is how you say thank you..."

The Guardian hit the ground, his fedora falling off from the impact, rolling away with the wind.

Knuckles lowered Julie's weapon along with his eyes that were filled with deep sadness at Aleutian. "Just this once."

* * *

Please take time to post a review and all, and don't be gentle either. 


	3. The Pains that Lie

* * *

**Attention:** Edited version. 7-31-07

Okay, so you've made it to chapter 2. I can understand that the last one was a bit dry, but it had to be done that way I'm affraid. This one is a bit different. I cut some things out on this one but added some others that I forgot to add or needed to add. The title is a double meaning and it is fitting for this.

I also want to dedicate this chapter to all the Runaways; may their reunions be better than this.

Disclaimer: I observe the characters of the games and comics from their original creators and stand to gain no profit from this.

* * *

**The Pains that Lie**

By Mauser

* * *

**Over a year and a half ago...**

The bright yellow light only made his head hurt worse, even if he could only see it through his eyelids.

He soon realized that his discomfort could have been from how his head was tilted; to the side and down, his chin touching his chest. But when he moved his head around, still keeping his eyes shut, a new and more searing pain reared up from his upper back. It stung, ached and burned all at the same time. Even as the pain overpowered his senses, he could feel cold, metal rings around his wrists. He tried to move his hands out in front of him, but found tough resistence. For a second, he thought he was paralyzed, banished forever to a metal chair that he felt himself sitting in. But with the rattling of the nickle chains from the cuffs, he realized in a numbing terror at what was probably going on. As he opened his eyes, feeling the burn from his pupils adjusting to the light, he saw that he was in a ship of some type; an old hoverbot he realized. The oval inside features weren't hard to miss.

His heart started pounding, knocking on his chest as if trying to force its way out from his rib cage. He soon felt a cold sinking feeling come over him, rinsed with the aches and burns from his body. He shuttered at first, trying his best to drive it all away; searching for past places of comfort to help him fight off the pain...but they only brought more.

His trance was broke; footsteps he heard, coming up ahead of him. They thundered hard on the metal floor as they crept closer to him, each step making him breathe in deeper than he should. With ever step echoing in his aching head he realized what was coming for him. Through his blurred sight and dazed head, he saw dark blueish domes with red slits approaching him, perched atop a metal, humanlike mass that towered over Aleutian even if he stood.

"The Mobian is awake. What are the orders?" came one of the Swat Bots, turning its dome shaped head to the right to its counter-part. The distorted voice box made Aleutian's head ache even more.

"Master wants him interrogated on the whereabouts of the Chaos Chamber," came the other.

"This Echidna has a nero-malfunction coming this far from the Floating Island. He will soon pay for it."

Aleutian looked down at his chest. His shirt was still on and he hoped that they hadn't seen his mark. "I still owe on for my debts," he snapped in his drowsy state.

"You are soon going to pay up rodent, unless...you give us the whereabouts of the Chaos Chamber."

Aleutian tried to move but with his hands shackled behind him against the metal chair his efforts bore no fruit in helping his situation. He blinked once more and looked up at the Swat Bots. "Sorry, I can't help you there. I haven't been to the Island for many years. Besides the chamber's a secret," he lied in a shaky, sly voice.

"Don't toy with us echidna, your kind knows where the Master Emerald is..."

"...And I hate to inform you two but I haven't been to the Island in many years. I left at a young age. I didn't get around to finding out where it is." The way to lie during any sort of interrogation is to tell half lies, or in Aleutian's case, half truths.

"I don't believe him, we need to try harder," came the bot on the left.

"Affirmative," came the one on the right.

The bot to the left stepped forward and sent its mechanical arm at Aleutian's chest, and knocked him backwards with him still in the chair. His head stopped his fall when it collide with a table behind him, leaning him up against it at an angle, and spawning a high pitch ring in his ears from the mild concussion of the impact. Then the light slowly faded away when it was overshadowed by a bot. The red slit that represented its visor started glowing brighter as it calculated at what it was going to do next to Aleutian.

With his heart skipping a beat, Aleutian heard the sounds of metal rubbing up against itself. His eyes darted over to his left, fixing on a long dagger that had extended out from the right arm of the Swat Bot who had knocked him over. He struggled to move, to put up a fight to get away, but the cold mechanical hand of the other Swat Bot stopped him almost dead, wrapping around his throat before thrusting him harder against the edge of the table. Then, the bot with the extended blade stepped to the left of Aleutian and grabbed one of his dread locks. All he could do was hold his aghast stare at the blade, wriggling with the hope his efforts would be his savor.

"Tell us young echidna," said the bot as it pinpointed where it should cut the lone dread lock, "do you like pain?"

The cold blade slid across his lock, sending a stinging feeling to his brain at first before the bot pushed down harder, sliding the blade slowly across in the process, cultivating a sharp, burning and aching pain. Aleutian screamed in blood curtailing agony, twisting and squirming from the shooting pain and his new lust to kill. Then, as fast as it began, the bot stopped and lifted the blade off the half severed lock. Aleutian whimpered in reprisal, squinting his eyes from the nightmare he was living in, taking in rapid breaths that became moans upon exhaling.

"Now, are you going to tell us?" asked the bot that had its hand around Aleutian's throat, its voice box sounding sly with a robotic tone behind it. "We don't have sympathy for pain since we don't feel it."

"Like I said," Aleutian paused, swallowing as he breathed in more sweet oxygen to hopefully relieve the pain, "I don't know where it is. Even if I did, I wouldn't tell you," he hissed in return. He could now feel the warm, wet sensation of blood flowing around his head and drenching the rest of his locks.

The bot beeped a lower tone and the other bot continued with the horrid torture. Aleutian followed it with his eyes as the dome headed machine walked back to grab his half severed dread again. Aleutian was shaking in the chair his eyes flinching side to side. There, he squeezed them tight upon the cold hand of the bot clutching his lock. Tears welled inside his lids, slipping out of the corners and washing over his face and tracing down the two long, deep scars behind his right eye. But he held in his urge to break. Even when the bot resumed to slice his dread further open; he held on. Even when the immense pain exploded in his mind; he held on. And when the tension was released from the bot completely severing Aleutian's lock from his head; he held in that urge, screaming it out before succeeding it with a moan, his jaw chattering all the while. He was breathing in so fast now that he was making himself dizzy.

"Well, if what you say is true, then why are you on the Mobian mainland?"asked the bot right in front of him. Aleutian could feel the other bot going for another one of his dreads, playing with it as a cruel taunt.

"It's a long story and I don't have enough locks for it," Aleutian cringed. The pain was becoming increasingly stronger now, and the breathing technique that he was taught wasn't helping to relieve it.

"Are you part of the House of Acorn and the Freedom Fighters?"

"NO!" he shouted, finding the sensation of his purple blood trickling behind his neck now. It was soon going to make a mess on the floor of the hoverbot.

"Do you know the location of their base by chance?"

"You might as well kill me now, 'cause I'll never give that up to the likes of you!" the scarred, and now bleeding echidna grunted.

The two bots looked up at each other. "Get the truth serum," came the one that was still holding Aleutian down by the throat, "if what he says he knows is true, Master will be happy."

"Affirmative."

_Oh no, what have I said. What have I done! I screwed up...and now all of Knothole is going to pay..._

* * *

A groan echoed throughout the inside of the Freedom Fighters' ship, stirring Julie-Su from her small nap. She unsnapped her belts and carefully made her way over to the source of it. "Knuckles, the knockout gas is wearing off," she observed, watching Aleutian move his head to the side, his eyes shut.

Knuckles awoke from his dosing nap from the news. He shifted his body to the right where they had the other Guardian buckled in.

Aleutian opened his eyes and noticed right off that he was in a transport craft. His mind immediately reverted to the dream he was having and feared he was back on board that dreadful hoverbot from a year and a half ago. He tried to stand-up, but his movement was restricted to the seat belts that laid across his chest and waist.

"Careful Aleutian, the gas hasn't worn off yet," said Julie-Su with an assuring calm voice, bracing herself over Aleutian's head rest.

The scarred Guardian took a deep breath and relaxed in his seat. _Thank Aurora I'm not on that ship again!_ Gazing with his heavy eyes out towards the window of the cockpit, passed Sally and Tails, who were flying and navigating the ship, he noticed that they were traveling over water as the light from the moon bounced off the ripples. It didn't take him long to figure out where he was going. "So, you're heading home? Make sure you drop me off before you get there."

"I'm taking you home!" Knuckles' growled, his teeth clenching as he looked over to Aleutian. "I want to know what's going on."

"You mean has been going on," Aleutian corrected. "Haven't you been hurt enough?"

"It's a part of life that I'm willing risk."

Aleutian was feeling the erg to sleep again due to the heavy amount of gas that Knuckles had doused him with. But before he closed his eyes:

"You know, I think you've hung around me long enough," he warned, "You are starting to..." he paused as he yawn, "starting to sound like me..."

* * *

Aleutian was tugging at his restraints when the two Swat Bots returned.

"The serum should be taking effect now. How are you feeling Echidna?"asked one of the bots.

"A little numb. The pain you inflicted is all but gone," thanks to the cerium he thought, his voice shaky from the feeling.

"Good, lets continued where we left off. Where is the Chaos Chamber?"

"Underground, somewhere around the Hidden Palace Zone." Aleutian was now telling himself to hold it together.

"And you do know the location of Knothole Village?" asked the other bot who had cut off his lock.

"Unfortunately I do, but," he began, pausing to gather his thoughts, "I don't think you'll have time to report it to your master...even if I did tell you."

"Explain yourself Mobian!"shouted the bot closest to him, his voice box distorted.

"You see...," Aleutian shook his head a little from the drowsy effects of the truth cerium, "I'm gonna rip off that nice shiny disk head of yours and throw it towards you partner, there, before he can activate his plasma arm."

"And how are you going to manage that when your cuffed to that chair?" came back the bot with the best mocking tone it could compute.

Aleutian moved his right hand out from behind his back with the handcuff still attach to it but with his other hand vacant from the swivelling claw. "Cause' I picked the lock."

He then forced himself up and off from the chair, leaping towards the closest Swat Bot and with his momentum, he upper-cutted the bot's head off of its robotic torso. Wires and sparks showered out from the flying disk, squally landing on the other Swat Bot's chest before was about it could activate its plasma blaster from its arm.

The metal head knocked the bot to the ground, but it wasn't the knockout blow that Aleutian was hoping for. In turn he jumped on top of it in an instant, raising his right fist that still had the metal restraints attached to it with one of the cuffs dangling freely, and reared to put the bot that sliced his dread lock off out of commission. But he was slow from the numbness he felt and the lingering pain, giving the bot a good amount of time to extend its dagger from its arm and made a long sweeping slash at Aleutian's chest. The shirt ripped down the center as the blade made contact with fabric, fur and then skin, sweeping partly across Aleutian's mark of Guardian. He felt the pain, however it was dulled from the cerium and his adrenalin charged body.

The droid calculated instantly upon seeing the white crest that Aleutian was an Echidna Guardian and that his capture was of upmost impor...

Cocking his right arm back, Aleutian pounded right through the heavily armored chest with his bare fist. His hand smashed through to the CPU inside, cutting the Swat Bot's systems offline. Lifting his hand out from the chest cavity, which exposed the cuts that were created from hitting the hard alloyed metal, he clutched it and held it for a moment against his chest. Sweat from the physical and mental stresses that he was put through rolled across his trembling body.

Feeling his senses and motor skills come back to him, Aleutian picked himself off the floor and stumbled outside. Dusk had turned to night and he was barely functional. Dazed it seemed. Nonetheless he looked up to the clear night sky and searched for the North Star. Finding it, he glanced about nine degrees to the right of it, and headed in the direction of a dear friend's house.

Three bloody hours passed when he collapsed at the door of his destination with the thud of his head hitting the door awaking the occupant of the house. When the door opened, a gasp came through the warm, glowing crack. "Aleutian my boy, what happened?"

Aleutian never replied, out-cold from the serum and the loss of blood from his desperate trek.

* * *

"We're here Aleutian, wake up!"came Knuckles, kicking the back of the seat that the other Guardian was lying in. Aleutian lifted his heavy eyes open, feeling drained from his dream.

Sonic came over and unsnapped his belts for him, winking at him before turning to the ramp of the mid-sized transport. The ship was practically brand spanking new still; the smell of the fabricated parts still lingered in the air. With the large jet engine that was placed at the rear of the delta-winged fuselage, it could puddle jump almost anywhere that the Freedom Fighters needed to be.

"Ready to scout out the place, little buddy?" Sonic asked Tails, who was awaiting for his blue friend at the ramp.

Tails grinned. "Figured you never asked Sonic!" They both exited the ship and took off in their separate ways, looking for any possible threats in their immediate area.

Knuckles grabbed Aleutian's arm and help him to his feet. "Where are we?" Aleutian asked his brother as he gained his balance.

"The Hidden Palace Zone. We have an underground operation here."

"What!" Aleutian seethed out from his teeth, "our people are now underground–"

"I didn't have a choice, and it is something that you wouldn't understand," Knuckles snarled.

"Try me, Knuckles," Aleutian quickly replied, starring into his brother with his cold blue eyes.

Knuckles shrugged off Aleutian's last comment and stood his ground with his arms crossed, looking away from his imposing brother...if that was what who he said he was. That, he was soon going find out.

Breaking his stare, Aleutian went about to unholster his weapons and began checking them to see if they were still functional. Knuckles clasped his mitten on top of his wrist, stopping him midway through the chore. "Don't take your guns. Leave them here."

Another long stare persisted before Aleutian hesitated briefly and he bowed his head in obedience and started disarming himself. However, he still kept his long coat on along with his fedora, throwing the rest of his stuff in a secured cabin in the back of the ship. There he adjusted his collar, and followed Knuckles outside.

It was eery for him when his boots touched the ground of his land. The grass was almost ankle deep and had patches of brown that intertwined with the green. Around him in the small clearing–that Tails had expertly landed the ship in–were leafless and even limbless trees dotting the landscape around him. And dead ahead he could see the outlining of the rocks that lead underground to the Palace Zone.

He grimaced at himself as his eyes fell to the ground. _So you're finally here. It took your brother for you to keep her promise. Satisfied now..._ Aleutian took a sharp deep breath, controlling himself before he began to cry in front of his brother._ No I'm not! Why didn't I do this on my own._

Sonic and Tails returned with the good news that the coast was clear. Knuckles nodded for Julie-Su and Aleutian to follow him. "Sally," he called out to the Princess, "stay here, we'll be back shortly."

"Make it so, I don't know how much time we have before either Eggman, or the Dingos, or the other part of your Family discovers us."

"Yes," Knuckles sighed, "be careful of any Dark Legionnaires. I don't know who is friend or foe since my dad said they were at civil war."

Aleutian eyed on Knuckles after the word of caution. "What, and I thought you said that they were helping you?" Knuckles just shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"We can take care them Rad Red!" Sonic said, assuring Knuckles with his fist hitting his open hand.

With the last good-bye nods, the three echidnas set out to the Hidden Palace, Aleutian centered in-between Knuckles and Julie-Su.

"Do you think that Echidna is pulling our chain, Sally?" asked Sonic, referring to Aleutian after the three were gone.

Sally held her crossed posed, her trained eyes on the back of the dark echidna. "I don't know Sonic. I don't know."

* * *

The entrance to the main keep would have had to take a full regiment of troops to get past. At either side of the lips of the cave were two heavy machine impulse cannons that laid behind fortified sandbags. Their operators, a mix of what was left of the Echidna Security Agency and the Dark Legionnaires, standing ready for anyone or anything to come calling for their deaths. At the center, the tepee shapes of anti-tank obstacles that had constantina wire draped over them and on the ground.

"You there, halt!" ordered one of the Dark Legionnaires, his body features overlapping with his natural fur and his unnatural metal parts. The rest of the small squad of guards raised their weapons at the approaching trio.

Knuckles raised his voice just enough that caution allowed. "Friendlies, I'm the Guardian Knuckles."

An EST guards stepped forward from behind a tree and side stepped his way over to Knuckles, his grey plasma rifle trained at his chest. When he caught the white crest around Guardian's chest, he waved to the others with excitement. "They're okay, let them through."

Knuckles nodded at him and walked towards the entrance with Julie and Aleutian in tow, snaking around the razor wire paths before disappearing inside the main keep. When they got inside, Knuckles was startled at the sight that laid before them. Little fires marked huddles of echidnas trying to stay warm from the coldness of the cave.

"So this is what you returned me for? To see your failure of our people?" Aleutian asked, his voice mixed with disappointment and frustration.

"I'm not the only one who's failed them–"

"Look," festered Julie-Su from behind them, "you two can just go on without me if you are gonna keep blaming each other on our troubles. I'm gonna go see Lien-Da what this civil war is about."

Aleutian watched the pink echidna turn her back and disappear into the sea of Echidnas, finding himself smiling some. "Where do you find _her_?" he asked Knuckles with almost a chuckle.

Knuckles eyes never left his equal. "Long story."

Knuckles lead the way to the new Master Emerald Chamber, knowing full well his father would be there. He couldn't wait to show off his new revelation to him. On the way, many Echidnas chanted the return of the Avatar, bowing down to Knuckles as they passed. Aleutian looked on in awe at the site of his people kneeling to his brother. "I died and came back to life," he explained to Aleutian, who snapped his head around to Knuckles. "Supposedly there is a prophecy that an Echidna will die and come back to life to save the people from a desperate struggle. It hasn't happened yet so far–"

"Yet!" Aleutian snapped, "Don't you loose your faith, brother, like I have!"

Knuckles just looked on at him, wondering if he was encouraging him, or doing something else. But losing faith? Knuckles regained what little faith he had lost when he did die. Seeing Aurora in person tends to do that.

They soon stepped through the tunneled entrance to the main chamber. The rock formation was lighted from the green glow of the Master Emerald that laid beyond the descending stairs.

"Stay here for a bit." Knuckles insisted, "I want to make sure he is here."

"Yeah right. You want to see if he's going to tape dance his way around this?" mocked Aleutian, almost smirking.

Knuckles just shook his head at Aleutian before continuing down the stairs, leaving his brother behind on the steps; his body concealed behind the wall. Aleutian watched Knuckles disappear into shadow from the green glow of the Master Emerald, holding his breath, killing the urge to run with his brother's back turned.

Locke was hunched over his folded legs, his hands on top of his knees with his mind placed into a deep trace. His eyes snapped to when his concentration was broken with the sound footsteps approaching. He searched his feelings and realized it was Knuckles, sensing the energy of two Chaos Emeralds as his son approached. Locke took a deep breath and smirked before he laid his thoughts on his son.

"So you've finally came to your senses and have come back to your people, haven't you?" he snarled in the chamber, reminding Knuckles of their heated discussion they had only weeks ago.

"I'm here for different matters, father–"

"What different matters!" Locke interrupted. "What can be more urgent than reclaiming our home from the enemies that now inhabit it. Did you even gaze upon our starving and frightened people as you strolled back to me!?"

"Yes I did, but that isn't--"

"Oh yes it is, Knuckles!" Locke shouted, sensing Knuckles's next thoughts. Knuckles had already told him off once in front of a screen, and now he was doing it again in his presence. "So what can be more important...Guardian!"

Aleutian was actually smiling at himself from hearing his father voice–which he hasn't heard in so many years–giving Knuckles an ear full of what he was also dishing out to him as well. It made him feel a little bit better about himself at that instant. The feeling of the scar on his snout stretching from the added tension of his smile, however, was enough to make it fade, sparking repressed memories and screams that much reassembled the long blemish.

"Dad...would you tell me everything about my past and our family?" asked Knuckles, his voice stern now.

Aleutian's stomach began to digest his feelings of anxiety.

"I thought I had!?" Locke barked out, being in no mood to teach history.

"You have only told of me and those who have effected me so I could become who I am, but you haven't told me–"

"Yes, Knuckles. That was so you can realize your duties and destiny of becoming a Guardian. There are no more secrets for you to know."

_So who is the Guardian that isn't more than five feet away from me Father? _Knuckles seethed out in his head.

Locke's eyes flustered when he sensed what Knuckles was saying in his mind. _What other Guardian..._

"Still keeping secrets...aren't we, Locke?" came Aleutian in a dark, empty voice, revealing himself from behind the stoned wall with his arms crossed over his body armored chest.

Locke stood up to see who dared overhear the conversation between him and his son. He could see a dark figure with a big brim hat that was illuminated from the green glow of the Emerald, but nothing else. Locke quickly searched his feelings but he came up short of who it was, only feeling coldness and pain from the person's soul. "How dare you intrude in this sacred–" he began, but was cut short by the enraged soul behind his son.

"How dare YOU keep secrets from your own SON!" Aleutian snapped, his voice deepening as he stepped forward into the light. His face pierced through the darkness, but the shadow of his long, deep scar on his muzzle still laid cloaked. "This goes far beyond of what 'father knows best!'"

"_No_..." Locke breathed out, only to bit down on his anger with his realization. "What are you doing here?"

Narrowed eyes pierced through the green glow. "Is that what you ask me! After all these years, _that_ is what you ask me!" Aleutian barked out.

"Your defiance to me deserves that questions! Your defiance to your people deserves that question," Locke snarled, crossing his arms in disapproval. "So why are you back here?"

"Some Guardian dragged me here," Aleutian said in a low growl as he pointed to Knuckles.

Locke looked straight at youngest son with his fiery eyes. "Why didn't you take his word for it and leave him be!?"

"Because I wanted to know the truth without the lies, Father!" screamed Knuckles.

A strenuous pause filled the heavy air, making Locke take a deep breath before expelling it out along with his anger. He lowered his head and arms down in defeat of keeping the truth from Knuckles...that he had a brother. And looking up and seeing Aleutian with his arms folded, looking at him with eyes of green fire through his fedora, a cold shiver careened down his spine from the pain he could see on his son's face. With a hard sigh before another uneasy breath, Locke found the courage he needed with it to ask the one question he longed to ask.

"How have you been, Aleutian?" he whispered.

Knuckles' mouth dropped down upon hearing his father's words come out like an unsuspecting earthquake. _He wasn't lying. He is my Brother!_

"Forgotten...and hurt!" Aleutian retorted back, his voice never flinching.

"You could have returned anytime, son. You know that. I had even asked you to come back, but you always turned me down with your defiance. Why?" Locke asked with sorrow that mixed with his demanding voice.

"Because I wanted you to come and get me instead of your messenger," the battered echidna hissed, "and from what you told me about the Prominent One here...I'd figured he could take good care of himself. And after the fit of raged you expressed, I don't even know if I would have still felt welcomed."

"That was not what you said over seven years ago. Plus, you have no idea what has happened to your brother since–"

"And nor do I care to, Locke. Not after the shame I have seen that he has brought forth since coming here–"

"Shame you speak of!? What of yours? You didn't even try, or give a care to your own people," Locke pointed out, crossing his arms and sealing the victory of the argument.

Aleutian dropped his hands down to his waist and gave one last hard look to his Father. "I was caring about my people, but not the way you wanted me to. Don't ever tell me that I didn't care," He then beamed his angered stare at his brother "I'm done here!" he harshly said as he turned to leave. "Thanks for the pain, brother."

"Aleutian," Locke called out to his son, making his words carry out to him. Aleutian stopped and looked over his shoulder at his father, his face grimacing from the verbal fight.

"It _is_ good to see that you are safe, son. Maybe not sound, but safe." Locke said with an even tone, his head lowered down to the soft ground.

Aleutian looked down at the steps that led up to the surface of the Palace Zone. Without a thank you, he climbed them out.

Knuckles was about to follow him when Locke called out to him. "Stop, Knuckles."

"Why, so you can lie to me again?" Knuckles seethed out.

"NO!" Locke shouted. He took in a deep breath and calmed his anger again to explain the past, making sure that Aleutian was already out of the Chamber before he began. "Aleutian _is_ your full brother. I didn't want to mention him to you because I didn't want you to go searching for him. Knowing how you search for the truth in your younger days, it would have sent you to the ends of world after him. And if you had found him, you probably wouldn't have liked what you saw. I was afraid that he would have made you question your purpose and your beliefs to the point that all hope would've been lost. It could have also unleashed your inner powers in a total opposite way that Mobius couldn't handle."

"Possibly you mean? What if I got him to go along with me...to help fight our enemies?"

"It was a small possibility," Locke agreed. "I had sent Archimedes to bring him back to help you a couple of times. The first time I sent for him; Archy just come back saying that he had a bigger fight to do, and that he would come back later to help you. The second time I'd sent for him, it was on the day the first Robotnick fell. Archy came back to Haven with what I was hoping to be good news, that he had accepted. But all Archy would say was that he was lost. He didn't tell me what, but something happened to Aleutian that made him loose his way. That was when I told myself that he was as good as dead..." Locke let a troubled sigh expunge from his lips, lowering his eyes to the Emerald as tears glistened from the green glow, "...now I really wish he was, for his sake."

* * *

Aleutian was making his way through the sea of desperate people...his desperate people he painfully pointed out to himself. _You should've been helping them directly for once!_ he snarled at himself.

"Dear sir, do you have anything to help feed my children?" came a quivering female voice from the dark ground.

Aleutian stopped to see a withered red echidna, holding her children close to the fire that was slowly extinguishing itself from the lack of fuel. He could see the kids crying under her arms, probably from the hunger pains of not eating in awhile. Then, the female echidna backed off a little after seeing the dark stranger's face, holding her kids tighter as to protect them from one who she had asked for help. Aleutian just stared down with a rigid look of anger, mostly at himself for scaring the poor women with his dark cloths.

The drab really wasn't him.

Aleutian then reached into his pocket and felt the lone credit bill that he took from Ebony Hare. He pulled it out and glanced at it. Not even caring that it was a fifty he slowly knelt down and placed it into the mother's hand. "It's all I have."

"Thank you good sir, but," she softly said, looking at money, "I don't think there is much value for this here anymore," she begged.

"Then it's very expensive fire tender to keep you children warm," Aleutian explained, almost smiling. He then watched her toss the bill into the dying fire. The paper slowly danced around as it was consumed, but burning out rather quickly.

The sight of the mother holding her two boys was enough to send an elegant of a woman he desperately tried to remember the features of. His heart was crushed when his thoughts came empty. He couldn't remember what his mother looked like. Times past he could; her long eye lashes, her decorative locks, her caring smile. All that was there was her name.

Lady Lara-Le.

He turned his attention back down to the poor mother and asked if she knew where his mother might be.

"She may be in the Palace itself. The higher families are there, but they aren't fairing to well either I am afraid."

Aleutian nodded and gave his thanks before walking off in the direction that the woman had pointed to.

* * *

"...So why did you banish him in the first place?" Knuckles asked his father rather flatly.

"It wasn't me who banished him...he did it to himself, Knuckles." Locke slowly began, looking up at the ceiling of the cave. "When I had that dream, I'd asked Athair if it was Aleutian in my vision, but he told me that it was you, not him. So, I started the mutation treatments and seduced your egg under the energy of the Chaos Emerald. When I told your brother about you and my vision before you were born, we went to none-speaking terms almost instantly. One day I asked him why he doesn't even talk to his own father. He said that he knew who the favorite was and that any conversation of reason would be a waste of his breath. I really wanted him to help you, Knuckles. I really did," Locke finished, his last sentence filled with sincerity.

"How old was he when he said that?" Knuckles asked in awe.

"He was six Knuckles, and shortly after that talk, he ran away. You were only one and a half seasons old when he walked out the front door. I ordered Archimedes after him, but he disappeared from our site."

Knuckles looked down at his feet. The whole picture started to make some since now, but it still wasn't all that clear yet.

Locke closed his eyes and opened them. "We might have a bigger problem."

"What's that?"

"He's heading to the palace itself. What I think he is searching for could drive him over the edge. I feel pain and coldness in him, Knuckles." Locke took a deep breath and gathered his thoughts. "He needs you, Knuckles...and you need him. He is probably going to see your Mother. Does he know of our separation?"

Knuckles gasped at the thought. "I don't know? I haven't mentioned it to him!"

"Then you best be on your way. And when you do see you mother, ask her for a box before you go."

"A box?" Knuckles questioned.

"Yes. She will know what you mean..."

Aleutian approached the entrance to the palace. The sky blue marble finish was gorgeous from his standpoint, but the two Dark Legionnaire guards weren't. As he drew closer, he saw them snap to attention, their weapons at the ready. "Halt you, state your business."

"I'm here to see Lady Lara-Le," he replied with a sincere expression of confidence on his scarred face.

"Have you an appointment?" one of them asked, his voice searing at Aleutian.

"I am afraid not," he replied bitterly.

"Then you cannot pass without the proper credentials."

Aleutian was about to start showing off his fancy foot work when he stopped himself short. He reached up to his coat, unbuttoned it, and pulled down his torn shirt collar. "Is this good enough," he scorned.

The two Dark Legionnaires looked at each other and stepped aside. "Our apologies, Guardian."

"It's all mine. You two are just doing your jobs," he breathed out as he walked through the main wooden doors.

He found the directory and saw that his Mother was on the top suite of the palace. _A fine place for a Guardian's family, _he thought to himself. As he rode the elevator up alone, his thoughts went to the past for a brief moment, his thoughts ending as the silver doors opened to the fifth floor:

_Well... at least you did kept her promise, even though it wasn't the way she wanted you to keep it, _Aleutian breathed to himself.

He turned right and made his way down the long, damply lighted corridor. Metal doors scaled up and down the short hallway, but Aleutian was only interested in one number. His long coat stopped dancing in the light breeze when he halted in front of it. Taking in a long, trembling deep breath, he raised his hand up, and knocked.

* * *

Lara-Le was inside with the lights dimmed, fighting a losing battle with a headache, and doing everything possible to get rid of it. After dimming the lights down, she laid on the white leather sofa in the living room, trying to ease the pain with her hand on her forehead. Her eyes became open when a light thud came to her door.

"This have better be good," she moaned as she slowly got up from the couch. Her long locks trailed behind her as she approached the door, touching the switch that activated the motors to open the doors. As the groans ceased and the light from the hall way invading her eyes, Lara-Le gazed at the dark silhouette of the person that stood beyond her.

"Can I help you, sir?" she cautiously asked.

Aleutian felt every nerve in his body tense upon hearing his mother's voice. His mouth opened from all the thoughts that raced through his mind with images that reflected how he got to this point.

_...and now this!?_ he gasped at himself.

With a lasting look to the ground, his shoulders hunched forward as tears rolled down his face. "Hello, mother," Aleutian said softly.

Lara-Le smiled before she returned the greeting. "Knuckles, what are you trying to do, scare me..."

"No, mom, "Aleutian paused, breathing in his tears, "it isn't Knuckles," Aleutian began, his tears were running down his check now; across his deep heavy scar.

Lara-Le placed her hand over her opened mouth, stepping back with her freehand ready to break her fall if she decided to faint. "Aleutian!?" she cried out, not believing what her thoughts beckoned her to ask.

The scarred Echidna nodded at the harsh truth with droplets falling from face, albeit with a hard grimace of sadness painted on his face.

Lara's eyes began to overload with tears of joy and sorrow; she didn't know what to do. But then her maternal instincts came up from her heart and did what any mother would do to any child of her's...she embraced him.

"Oh my Aurora...it is you," she whimpered with her voice reverberated through his chest, "you've come back to me." She held him for more than a moment before clutching his hand and moving him out of the door, which shut after the sensors computed that their presences were away. Lara left him by the sofa as she went to turn up the lights. The sudden brightness revealed Aleutian as who he was; a scarred boy, more so on the inside than out, looking for forgiveness from his mother.

He could feel his heart aching from the overjoy of the reunion. He walked over to his mother and squeezed her hand, but wondered if she was going to ask him about all that he has been through. The scars would be all more the reason to ask him, but he wanted to shelter her from his painful past. But he really wanted to open up to her...to tell her the fears that he has experienced. To tell her the great sadness and frustrations he felt from losing the one that truly mattered to him. After all Lara-Le was his mother, and mothers do know what is best to comfort their own. Even if they ran away from home. But he worried what she might think of him if he told her the acts that he has done, and the acts that he still had the bitter heart to do.

Lara-Le could see the horrid scars on his face when the lights revealed what was left of her son. The scar on his broad snout cut through her like a rusted, dull knife. She has seen wounds before, but seeing ones so deep on her own son made her break down completely. She fell to the floor, her knees buckling from the immense pain that she felt for him, shielding her eyes from the sight of him. Seeing her son the way he returned to her made Lara feel so ashamed for what she and Locke had not done for him–to find him and say that they were sorry–was enough to make her cry on the floor and to turn away in shame.

Aleutian went to her side, touching her arm that was drying her tears. She shook her head in frustration as she wept in his arms. "I'm so sorry...I'm so sorry. I didn't want to hurt you like this," she choked out, trying to beat her emotions back; but it became a losing battle in Aleutian's arms. "My baby boy! My poor baby boy. I prayed for so long for your safe and sound return, and now you are here, punishing me."

"No one needs to be punished, mother. It was me who left. It was my jealousy over a stupid prophecy that led to my choices. I'm the one who is sorry for leaving those who loved me."

"We still do Aleutian," Lara whimpered out, looking into his eyes that were glistening with tears in the dull, yellow lights of the room. "If you could go back, would you have made a different choice and stayed with us?" she asked, her voice trembling with her words.

Aleutian thought hard. Of all that he has been through and done–especial all that he has done-- would he have still made that the same decision? Would the outcomes of the past be better if he did?

"No..."

His words hit her hard, forcing her to look up at him in disbelief. "Why Aleutian?"

He considered his words well before he dropped them into her hands. "I remember what you said to me long ago. I still remember it to this day. You told me our decisions effects our destiny. When dad told me of his dream of Knuckles after my brother was born, he told me that I would help out in his quest. So I made a decision that would have two effects. One: I left so when this adversary, that dad spoke of, would rise to power, I would hopefully might be able stop him before he took either Echidnaolopis or the Island over. And two: To keep out of the way of my brother so he could fulfill his destiny. I figured that was the best way I could help him. I felt I would have been a burden to him."

"But you could have come back..."

He shut his eyes from hearing the truth that he didn't want to hear. The time that he would have come back died on a nameless field of battle over two years ago.

Lara-Le traced the long scar down to his cheek, and to her horror, it was deep. Then she noticed the two others behind his right eye. She traced those too with a curious and scared look. Fearing that there might would be more, she started looking all over his body. When she came across the stubbed dread lock, she felt that as well.

"I have done pretty well at keeping my tail in one piece, but I can't say the same for the rest of me," Aleutian commented, wiggling his uninjured tail.

"These look fresh Aleutian," she said, still tracing the one on his snout, "how old are these?"

"About a couple of years."

"Who did you go to get these healed?"

"A few friends. All I could get at the time."

"We can fix these Aleutian. We can clean these up," Lara said in a comforting voice.

"No mother. These stay."

Lara-Le started tearing up again. "But why?"

"I have my reasons mom. That is all I want you to know."

"But it pains me to see them on you. You can start healing your spirit by healing the scars of the past..."

Aleutian just squeezed her hand. It was enough to reenforce what had he said. He stood up and helped Lara-Le to her feet. He could feel his eyes starting to water again.

"So, what now? Are you staying?" she asked.

"I don't know, mom. I still feel that my life isn't here."

"But it is. That is why you came back in the first pl–"

On cue, the door slide open with Knuckles walking through it to see Lara-Le and Aleutian holding hands. Aleutian turned and shot him a cold stare in his direction for interrupting their reunion. "No, mom. I didn't come here on my own decision," he seethed out through his teeth.

Lara's mouth dropped along with her joy. "But I thought you'd come back on your _own_?"

"No, I'm sorry, mom. Knuckles is the reason why I stand before you now."

"So you would have stayed away from me forever, leaving me to wonder if your were still dead!? How could you do this to me...to me Aleutian! To the mother who brought you into this world that gave you the gift of life so you can find the treasures of love!" she cried out, her last sentence mixed with sorrow and grief under her withering voice.

It hit home to Aleutian. He wondered why he had be so selfish to the ones who loved him. _Because you didn't know that they still loved you until now._ He squeezed his eyes to stop the tears from coming, realizing that the shame he felt wasn't from neglecting his people. For all that he had done, and had not done, in the past two years he had forgotten about his real reason for leaving home until now. The shame he felt wasn't that he left home, but that he never returned and on his own...

_Like what she wanted you to do!_ It took his brother who had no idea that he existed, in part of Locke, to drag him back in search of truth. That was the shame he felt at that very moment...that of not returning.

The door came alive with a child's voice yelling through it. "Knuckles!" Kneecaps shouted in surprise. Aleutian watched the little echidna boy run up to his brother and to his surprise, gave him a kick in the shin with his size two and a half shoe.

"Ow!" grunted Knuckles, grasping his leg from the blow that his half-brother dealt. The little red echidna, who wore a blue shirt that was a little too big for him, giggled at his deed.

"Kneecaps! Be nice to your brother." shouted Lara-Le.

Aleutian shot his eyes up to Knuckles, his mouth falling open. Knuckles could see the question in his rolling in his eyes, watching them fall back down to Kneecaps, who was about to give him another shot, but the little one and ten month old echidna stopped when he noticed the dark figure that was by his mother. Kneecaps retracted his leg and ran around to Knuckles's back, nervously tugging on his half-brother's tail. He then slowly looked out from behind the warm-body that he was using as a shield, gazing upon the dark stranger. He pulled harder on his half-brother's tail to hopefully get his attention.

Knuckles was far from it.

Lara-Le didn't realize it until she saw the look that Aleutian gave to Knuckles which turned to one of joy, thinking that he had another baby brother. _He doesn't know about the divorce. _Her shock was deepened when the voice of her husband came from the hall. _Oh no..._

"Kneecaps! You don't just go running off like that! You stay with me at all times," Wynmacher said as he turned the corner of the opened door, "how many times do I have to..." He stopped when he saw Knuckles was present, but he didn't understand why Kneecaps was behind him. Then his gaze caught the glimpse of another echidna in the room.

"Can I help you sir?" he asked nervously, holding two bags of food that he worked hard to get on his outing.

Aleutian looked over at Wyn who was wearing a long, light blue robe over his brown fur and had a black ring over one of his dreads. He could see that he kept himself fit considering what Aleutian thought of what his age was. "I think you have the wrong room sir," he said with a cold, and to the point, voice.

"I'm afraid not, sir. This is my house," Wynmacher replied, who was getting ready to drop his goods to defend his family.

Aleutian glanced over to Lara-Le with a look of discontent. "Where's Locke?" he barked out, wondering why this "Wyn" was standing in the door and not his father.

Lara looked down to the floor, grabbing her arm to brace herself of the pain she was about to inflict her son with.

"Me and Locke divorced two years after you left," she softly said under her tears.

Aleutian bit down hard with anger, clenching his right fist in his frustration.

"Sir, I don't like how your addressing my wife. I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

Aleutian snapped his head towards Wyn, his blue eyes burning with rage. Knuckles was putting up his left arm for a quick defense to hopefully save Wyn from his new found ego, slowly pushing Kneecapeon back to make room for the impending fight.

"You better get him out of my face mother, or you're going to be a widow very soon!" Aleutian growled.

"How dare you–"

"Wyn, shut-up and go...NOW!" it was Knuckles this time. He could see his mother fighting for the words over her fragile self.

"But..." Wyn tried to interject but Lara-Le enforced Knuckles's request.

"Go to the kitchen Wyn and take Kneecaps with you. I'll explain this later."

Wyn bowed his head to her wishes, motioned for Kneecaps to follow, and took his leave with great puzzlement.

Aleutian held his head down, shaking it to force the explanation of what had transpired. He looked over to his brother who was starting to back down. Knuckles' heart sank, knowing what Aleutian was thinking. _I was going to tell you, _Knuckles tried to say, but no sound would travel out from his lips. But the thought was painted on his face.

Aleutian beamed his reply within his malice eyes. _Fair enough Knuckles. I know I've been a block head and not asking the questions that I should've been asking instead of you. Fair enough! _And there he took one painstakingly step towards the door, then another; the excess fabric from his coat trailed behind him as he started to leave.

"Aleutian...stay! Please, don't leave me like this again!" Lara-Le pleaded with her voiced raised.

"What...the letter wasn't good enough!?" Aleutian replied, his voice shaking, but his words filled with rage.

"I want to be your mother. I want to hold you again in my arms. Don't rob me of that again. Not now!" Lara-Le was crying and screaming now, shaking from the fear that she may not see him again for another sixteen years. All Knuckles could do was watch as Aleutian left without saying a word.

Lara-Le fell to the floor, crying the hardest she's ever cried in her life.

Knuckles went over to her and held her in his arms. "I thought you went separate ways over me?" he asked with a soothing voice, forcing his temper back down from what his brother had snapped at her.

"We did, Knuckles. I wanted you to have a childhood and to make your choices while being a kid. Locke said that you were too valuable for the future to make decisions on your own. So he made them for you. I hated it; every second of it. He was so selfish of you because he lost Aleutian from his freewill. He wanted your brother to help you, but Aleutian just left. Only saying good bye in a note."

"Why didn't you tell me of him?" Knuckles asked. He was starting to feel the pain that she was releasing through her tears.

"Your father took you when you were three. You wouldn't have remembered him if I did tell you. When Echidnalops returned to Angel Island I was so happy to see you that I forgot all about him. When I did remember, I asked Locke about him and he said that your brother was dead," she said, shaking her head from Locke's lying words, "and he told me not to tell you for your sake."

"He told me that he was lost."

"Again, Knuckles, difference of opinion between me and your father," she said with a shrewd voice.

"More like lost in translation, mother," Knuckles said as he stood up. He was about to go after Aleutian when he stopped at the door and remembered to ask Lara-Le about a box.

"Dad said something about a box?"

His mother looked up at him, nodded her head, and stood up. She rubbed her nose as she walked along the way to the jacket closet. Opening it she sifted through the hung clothing before returning with a brown box with no markings. "This is Aleutian's," she announced as she handed it to Knuckles. "Give it to him when he is ready."

"Ready for what mother?"

"When he finds himself again. He maybe lost, like your father says, but you can help him find his way. Deep down, Knuckles, he isn't this dark. If he was, I would have felt it," Lara said, her gaze furthering the truth that she spoke of. "You'll know."

With that, Knuckles hugged his mother and started to leave the room.

"Knuckles, tell him that it isn't his fault," she choked out, her words trailing as the door slide shut.

When the groans stopped, she fell to the floor again, weeping for Aleutian, hoping that he'd come back her.

* * *

The walk back towards the ship drove his anger further with every step Aleutian took. After he emerged from the cavern he started going through his thoughts of what had transpired. Hearing of his parents divorce after he'd left, sent him on a anger trip that didn't stop until the open moonlight hit his face. He looked at himself from the inside. The hat, the coat; for some reason they didn't fit him emotionally anymore. Breathing in heavily, he tried to cool his temper. It worked, but it turned to grief that traveled throughout his body, causing his knees to buckle from the weight of his thoughts that drove him to the ground. He screamed in his emotional agony at the dark sky, hoping no one could hear him.

_So he does cry,_ Knuckles observed at a distance. He didn't see the brief, but somewhat happy reunion with Lara-Le.

Slowly making his way towards his brother, he could hear Aleutian talking to himself, placing the blame where it didn't belong. "It's my fault...it's all my fault. I hurt everyone I ever loved. It's Aurora's way of punish me?"

"No, Aleutian," Knuckles tearfully said, "you are not to blame for mom and dad splitting,"

"YOU!" Aleutian growled over his tears as he stood up and marched towards Knuckles, his right hand pointing towards the source of all his pain, "you brought me here to what...harden me even further!?"

"No! I came for the truth," Knuckles stated, matching Aleutian's throes expression.

"And look what the outcome is!" Aleutian barked, stepping right up to his little brother's face.

"Yes, look at it, Aleutian. You've seen that the people you left still love you! And now I'm here with you...standing beside you in your moment of dispar! If you are wanting reward, then here it is! I need you now, our people need you, and most of all, you are the one who needs me," Knuckles whole-heartily testified. "Your family never abandoned you, but you abandoned them, and after seeing them now, do you really think you can runaway again? You can't Aleutian. They know your alive, I know your alive, and mark my words, I will hunt you down to the ends of Mobius."

Aleutian just listened, crying in between the breaths of his brother's words as he stepped back.

"I would have loved to have known that you existed in my younger seasons when Locke left me for The Forbidden Zone," Knuckles continued. "We could have figured things out on our own, instead of me having to cry myself to sleep in my den, thinking I was alone. Did you ever think about what you were doing to me when you walked out?" Knuckles drew in a long shaky breath. "And now I am here today, with you. If this is a chance encounter, then so be it. I say it is destiny and it is done by the choices we've made. Can you remember yours...do you still believe in your reasons for the choices you've made?" Knuckles finished, stabbing his mitted finger into Aleutian's chest

Aleutian just lowered his lonely gaze down towards the grass carpet, not knowing what to believe in anymore. All his emotions he had were filled with pain. He hadn't felt love in so long that when it came back...it hit him with a vengeance. Tearing him down to where he felt mute in his heart to accept it.

"Take me home Knuckles...please," his request was all that he could muster with what little voice he had left from the crying.

* * *

Tails was at the controls and enjoying the easy flight back home over the glimmering ocean. His trance, though, was soon broken when the alarm sounded. He looked down and saw it was the missile detection beckon with a message to break left. Jamming the stick hard in the requested position from the computer, he did it in the nick of time; a missile barreled from under his right wing, detonating safely away, and causing the ship to shutter from the shockwave which awoke Aleutian. He could hear the sound of debris hitting the sides of the transport as he gathered his senses.

"What's going on, Tails?" Sally yelled, her voice being drowned out from the sounds of another alarm.

"I have more missiles inbound from an unknown point of origin!" shouted back the twin-tailed fox. He slammed the control yoke down and turned it to the right. The added G forces jerked everyone around in their seats, some of them holding on to the arm rests as the ship banked hard to the right.

Sally looked over her shoulder at the small rounded window beside her. What she saw sent an irritable feeling to her stomach; three white streaks where climbing up from the sea, looking like long tentacles of death rising up to meet them in the moonlight. She unsnapped herself from the seat and began to go forward to the cock-pit, but Tails pulled back on the stick hard and increased the engine throttles to the firewall. The sudden movement sent Sally backwards, almost landing right into Aleutian's lap. Finding no point in getting hurt from Tail's flying she struggled back into her seat beside him and fastened the safety straps across her blue vest.

"Can you shake these things, Tails?" she shouted, wanting to hear good news on the spot.

"I'm trying Sally!" the young fox nervously replied

"You have any CHAF on this hunk of junk?" came Aleutian, his words coming out shaky from the vibrations of the ship.

"What do you mean hunk of junk, this thing's brand new!" retorted Sonic in his usual mocking manner.

From the left side of the cockpit window, one of the missiles streaked by and exploded at a distance that wouldn't cause any damage to the ship, except for the pride of those aboard. "Yea, we do! Now what?"came back Tails, jittered from seeing the fireball and the ring of sparks from the exploded missile.

"_Missile impact in...ten seconds_,"the automated female voice reported.

"Level this thing out and fire off two when they get close," suggested Aleutian and that he hoped would be taken to heart.

"How close!?" blurted out Julie-Su, who was not liking the unpleasant ride and the feeling of having her pretty-self about to be splattered to the four winds.

"_Five seconds...till impact_."

"That's close enough..." came back Aleutian, his eye brows pointing to the roof..

Tails jammed the button for the anti-missile countermeasures. Two single grey balls fired from the aft of the ship, exploding after a few meters away from their departure. They sprinkled white hot sulfur shrouds in the air, creating a cloud of hot molten metal. The two trailing missiles impacted the shrouds, exploding their ordnance safely away from the ship. Tails felt the impact through the controls.

"Now what?"

Aleutian unstrapped himself from his seat, dispensed his coat and hat onto the chair, and moved over to the consol. He plotted himself in the co-pilots chair and strapped himself in for the ride. "Climb this thing and climb it hard."

Tails bushed for the afterburner that rocketed the ship to the heavens in a sharp climb. The added thrust sent shudders throughout the ship, creating more of a bumpy ride for the Freedom Fighters. Then the alarm sounded its ugly tone again, drowning out the sound of the pushed engine that was at max power.

"Oh, please be quite!" exclaimed Tails, who was having enough of the current ordeal.

"Keep going, don't let up," came Aleutian with a calmer voice.

"You mean make us an easy target for what's ever shooting at us?" shouted Sally, wondering who made the new echidna captain of the ship.

"Those are short range missiles ma'am. If we increase our distance and altitude, we'll be out of range from 'em," Aleutian quickly informed Sally, hoping to cool her temper.

"And the ones that are on track to us!?" barked Julie-Su.

Aleutian rolled his eyes at the revelation. _Oh yea, forgot about those..."_

"How many more countermeasures Tails?" he asked, hoping that he got the fox's name right.

"Two left, but there's four of them after us," replied the young fox in his childish voice.

Aleutian looked down at what he determined to be the radar screen, and noticed the missiles were coming in two by two. _So where are they coming from? _He traced the contrails back the surface of the ocean, via the adjacent LSD monitor that showed the incoming fires of death. "Looks like Davy Jones doesn't like us for some reason," he observed with a smirk, his body still shacking from the vibration of the turbulence.

"Hey, I hear is locker is pretty nice–"

"Can it Sonic!" shouted a very tempered Sally.

"_Ten seconds till...missile impact. Break right_!" announced the automated female voice again.

"Deploy the countermeasures, Tails!" Aleutian ordered.

Tails released them on his command. They exploded and caught the first two missiles in their fiery clutches, but the following two maneuvered around the molten cloud and continued after their target.

"Any more bright ideas there scar-face?" Sonic asked mockingly.

"You call me that again boy wonder, and you'll be our next countermeasure...got it," came Aleutian, his voice deepened as he turned to the blue hedgehog. Sonic nodded with a gulp.

"Hold your course Tails," Aleutian said, throwing a calmer voice amongst the optimistic ones. Tails just looked at him with disbelief. The Guardian just nodded at him for reassurance.

"Your brother is an absolute loon, Knuckles," observed Sally. Julie-Su was beginning to agree with her.

"_Missile impact in...ten seconds. Brake right_!"

"I'm beginning not to like her either, Tails," came Aleutian with an eery calm voice.

As the missiles crept closer, burning their solid fuel away, they came to the point where their proximity warheads were about to detonate; but the distance never came. They were still closing in when their precious fuel ran out, however, the resistence of the fast moving air slowed their pursuit. With gravity finding its fingers around the slender shapes of the missiles; they slowly started to fall away.

"_Eleven Seconds...till impact. Fifteen seconds...till impact. Tracking missiles have diverted course_."

The whole ship let out a breath of grateful relief with the exception of Aleutian. He stood up from the co-pilot's chair and made his way back to his original seat, throwing his coat over him to keep warm. "Well, that was fun," he expressed with a hint of relief, placing his hat back on top of his head.

Julie-Su looked back at Knuckles, her face pale, but not from the fear of almost getting blown out of the sky. Her mind raced back to her meeting with Lien-Da and what was being planned. What ever it was down in the ocean could have a major impact of the plans that laid in store for her kind. "Knuckles, we might have a problem?"

"We didn't take a hit did we?" came Sonic, still frantic from the near misses–or hits as he looked at it.

"No, not that," Julie brushed off, "Lien-Da told me that they are wanting to send some refugees our way. Now that the island is over the Eastern Ocean, they want to send a ship with over five-hundred echidnas onboard to the main land."

"Who're they sending?" Knuckles asked, knowing the dire path that laid before those who were seeking exile.

"Mostly women and children along with those too sick to hold out until we can take the Island back," she said with a strain in her voice, "and I know you don't like to swim?"

Sonic snuffed at the comment. "That makes two of us!"

"How are they going to send that many people over the air?" asked Sally.

"They're not. They are going by sea. Since Eggman has pretty much the upper-hand with air cover, especially with the threat of his Eggfleet, they want to send them over the water."

"What Eggfeet?" asked Aleutian promptly.

"Eggman has a giant Eggfleet. We've seen it, and its bad news," replied Sonic, gesturing the size with his hands.

Aleutian weighed in his options but wondered if they would take him seriously. "You have anything that could detect and sink whatever it is that's down there?"

Tails turned back in his seat, "No we don't. I think Rotor could build something in a hurry–"

"Can he do it in six days and counting; because that is when they are going to set sail from the Island," Julie-Su said in frustration. She was going to tell Knuckles about this when they got back to their temporary home in Knothole City, but new circumstances dictated that idea differently.

"Last time I checked, Angel Island is several thousand feet over the water. How are they even going to get a boat sea worthy from that height?" asked Tails.

"Locke is going to power down the Emerald and let the Island sink a little. When the ship is steaming away, he'll re-power the Emerald and float it back up," explained Julie.

Sally put a hand over her forehead and tried to rub the pain away from the stress. "We'll think of something. If anything they might have to stop the exodus all together," she then turned to Aleutian. "So where can we drop you off?"

Aleutian weighed in his options. He knew he could help them, but he didn't know if he had the courage to do it. He grimaced at himself and looked down at his boots; but his eyes would never fall to them. Instead, he looked further down; at his white birthmark on his chest. _Well, are you going to help them directly this time, or are you going to go back home and crawl yourself into that little ball again?_

"Knothole City will be fine," he answered, his voice stiff with his decision, "I need to look at a map."

"You can use the computer–"Aleutian interrupted Tails with the wave of his hand.

"No, I need a paper map, with calipers, a rule, and a compass," he paused before continuing, "I might have something up my sleeve but I need to make sure we have enough time to do it," Aleutian said with a hint of confidence as he clasped his hands over his hand and leaned back in the seat. "But for now, I am going to enjoy the rest of the flight in peace." And with that, Aleutian tipped his hat over his eyes and doze off with the sound of the whiny engine as his lullaby.

* * *

A little later, Knuckles was walking past Aleutian to go talk Tails, but his brother stopped him as he grabbed his arm. Knuckles jerked his head to see Aleutian looking up at him with tears tracing down the painful fissures behind his right eye. With a soft and faint voice that was trying to choke the painful tears of the day back inside him, he said something to his brother that left Knuckles in total shock at what the meaning was...

"...thank you..."

Knuckles nodded his head ever so slightly at Aleutian. As he continued back to the command deck to talk with Tails, tears were welling under his eyes as he approached the twin tailed fox. He let them fall without resistance.

* * *

Please review and all. Tell me how I did and what you think. Our next chapters will come to the meat and grit of this whole thing, plus, it might seem like a different story all together. And again, I open with a glimpse of Aleutian's past and then his current feelings. See you on the flipside.

* * *

* * *


	4. The Old Dingo by the Sea

* * *

Welcome again. This chapter we start out in the past again (ya, I know, kinda of a redunant thing.) Maybe so, but it is how I so my story building. On top of that, do you really want to get bored with someone EXPLAINING the whole history just by mere dialogue. I sure the heck don't. But this one will be a bit boring though I am afraid...but every story or book has their dry spells that IS needed. It helps build up to the climax and all.

Disclaimer: I don't own none of the Sonic the Hedgehog Characters and species and respect the rights of the creators.

And onto the story:**  
**

* * *

**The Old Dingo by the Sea**

By Mauser:

* * *

16 years ago:

A young Aleutian was standing over the crib of his baby brother Knuckles, who was sleeping comfortably in his yellow pajamas, and suckling on his thumb as his slumber took him through the night. This was the last thing Aleutian wanted to do; see his baby brother one last time. A tan-colored backpack, filled with food and other items that Aleutian might need, sat beside him as he stood on his tip toed tan and green shoes to get a better look at Knuckles. The last object he crammed into the sack was a family picture.

He had no direction but out. Aleutian had no idea where he was going but he wanted away from Echidnaolopis and everything that represented his current way of life, only leaving a note to his parents as a good-bye:

"_Dear Mom and Dad, I am leaving. I have made my decision and it is mine alone. I am doing this because I love Knuckles and I'm not going to stand in his way. I fear a sibling rivalry between us could be bad for our kind, and I don't want to be second place to Dad's love in the process. So, I will help Knuckles and our kind in my own way. Good Bye! Aleutian."_

Aleutian stood by Knuckles' crib for what felt like hours to him. He questioned if what he was about to do was right, but seeing his brother sleep so innocently, it sealed his decision. Removing his right glove from his hand, he gently stoked Knuckles' head, tracing his small dread locks down to his shoulder. "Good-bye little brother. I will be there for you, but it won't be by your side," he whispered as a tear fell from his eye and dropped onto Knuckles.

Aleutian was too concerned with getting his glove back on that he neglected to see it fall and touch his brother. Pulling his glove taunt, he turned and defiantly walked out of Knuckles' room. When he rounded the corner, his mind flashed back to the day his brother took his first steps. Lara-Le had just released him from her arms, and Knuckles slowly began to walk. The first person he triumphantly stopped at was Aleutian, and hugged him with an iron grip. And now the elder brother was going to leave all that.

He walked over to a table-stand by the front door. On it was Locke's portable computer, filled with information on weather, satellite feeds, and most importantly the present location of Angel Island. Aleutian activated the device and scrolled through it, coming upon the information he was seeking. The Island was only sixty miles from location where he would appear from, and over water. But, in a couple of days it would pass over Mobius Prime and there he would jump off and begin his journey. He put the hand computer in his sack and proceeded to the door, turning just before he left to take one last look of the yellow walls of his home. Aleutian took a long deep breath and looked down at the carpet. His mind went over of what he was about to do...runaway.

He was confident in his father's training that was drilled into him since he was four. Basic survival skills, many martial art styles, and basic schooling; much of which was from a school house, but what Aleutian really lacked was real Mobius skills. He didn't know the harshness of the world he was about to step foot onto, and he was too young and naive to even see that.

He pushed the activator button that slid the door open to the outside world. His first step on the raw ground without one of his parents felt strange. He wasn't sure if it was the feeling of freedom or a bad mistake, but he pursued on with his self-convictions. When he cleared the door, it slowly slid shut behind him.

Knuckles was awakened to the tear drop and the feeling of someone touching him. He saw Aleutian leaving with his eyes clearing from the fog of sleep. After a moment he heard a soft thud of the door shutting, but he didn't cry from being jolted awake; for it wasn't the first time someone in the house had woken up and gone for a snack or something in the middle of the night.

But before he went back to sleep, sucking on his thumb, he blurted out his first word, his first word that only the walls would hear in the sleeping and now one less family membered house...

"...Aluushan..."

* * *

Aleutian found a tall mound on the outskirts of Echidnaolopis that was hidden in a pocket zone from the rest of the world and known universe. He trudged up it and with a running jump at the crest of it, he started using his flying technique that he had just learned from his father. Feeling for the patches of thermals and wind paths through his dread locks, he set himself aloft on the night air.

His flight was straightforward at first. He remembered how his father traveled through the zone to go and see the progress of the island. He remembered it well enough that he found himself going from the zone to the real reality was easier than he thought. His vision was washed with blackness of the night, though, as he came through the small portal. The air was hot and humid, even at his present altitude, and the sky totally black. He could hear the swells of the waves below him, but he couldn't see the foamy white caps. Gazing to the sky above, he saw nothing; not even a twinkle of a star, or the aura glow of the moon. Fearing that he might have jumped into a different zone, he reached back quickly and grabbed his father's handheld computer. Keeping his leveled balance in the still air, he flipped it on and gauged his position on the white and green screen; the red dot the resembled him showed that he was only three miles from his destination.

Breathing a sigh of relief, he placed the device back in the sleeve of his pack as he pressured on through the night air. But with one the deliverance of one fear came another. He felt his ears plugging up as he completed another mile. Before he knew it, he saw flash of a white mythical light a little ways out, and to his horror of his sight, the waves below him were angry and rising up to him. Refreshing his mind of what his father had told him about his new abilities, he remembered that he couldn't actually fly, but glide; using thermals and air pockets to help him gain altitude to stay aloft, along with some help from the chaos energies. But the air was so still, and without the sun or the moon to heat the water that would produce the thermals that he desperately needed; he was sinking to the ocean, and sinking fast.

A sinking feeling of panic came over him as he swallowed to clear his ears from the change in barometric pressure, but along with the panic came a revelation...one that he knew might save him. Humidity, still air, an angry ocean and now clouds, and now the sight of more lightning ahead of him; he was vastly approaching a front, a cold front he was sure of, that would rain and heavy gusts of winds. It was the winds that stuck in his mind.

He eagerly waited for his body to pass over the front, porpoising himself up and down to stay in the air a bit longer. It worked. He felt the wind pick-up and he used it to gain more lift. But yet again, with one fear being delivered from his senses came another.

Aleutian hadn't flown in weather like this before, but he kept his new found instincts and wits about him, even as the wind began to toss him around like a piece of paper. The rain started peppering his face now, the air turning cold as he progressed through the storm, and it was all making it ever harder for him to see where he was going. He tried to whip his face but the loss of one of his hands made him unstable. A flash of lighting revealed Angel Island for a brief moment with the white light, its silhouette illuminating in the dark cloudy sky. Aleutian sighed in relief, knowing his journey was about to soon be over.

He again, moved his right hand to whip his face from the pounding rain, trying to do it fast enough so he could keep himself stable, but a violent wind sheer ended his efforts, tossing him into a spin. He put his arms at his side, trying to point his head down towards the water to pick up speed. The momentum he was trying to achieve could have brought him out of the fall and back up to level flight; if another wind sheer hadn't surprised him. He hit the water at a rate that would leave a bruise on his body for days to come.

The instant he impacted the frigid water, Aleutian exhaled what little oxygen he had left in his lungs. He climbed his way up to the surface more on instinct than training. As he reached the rolling sea, he forced as much air into his lungs to keep himself afloat. But as he gulped down the precious oxygen, he was forced down by a wave, and the weight of his backpack. During the brief moment he was underneath the rolling ocean, he unstrapped his bag from behind his back and activated the small flotation unit that was built inside of it. He grabbed a hold of the straps before he pushed the valve open. The CO2 cannister inflated the small air compartment inside the small bag, shooting Aleutian up to the surface. When he reached the surface again, he put an iron grip around his new life raft, and began praying for a miracle to end his ordeal.

As the first four minutes passed, he began to shake uncontrollably from the icy cold water. He searched his thoughts on what he could do, remembering the hand computer in the sack. Taking it out of the top pocket of the bag, the shivering echidna desperately tried to activate the distress signal that could hopefully send help from the stupid situation he had gotten himself into. He was no longer the fearless warrior anymore. He was a cold and freezing kid again.

Aleutian was about to thumb the button to activate the signal, but the shakes from hypothermia quivering throughout his body made him lose his grip on the only device that could save him. He quickly fumbled for it as it slipped out of his shaking hand, but it hit the water and sank to the bottom of the ocean, along with his hopes of survival.

Another flash of lightning lit up the sky and exposed Angel Island. Aleutian's heart sank in defeat, but with more of an ache knowing how close he had come to getting there.

Ten minuets passed but to Aleutian; it was an eternity. He didn't stop praying to Aurora, even when the cold water was taking his conscious state away from him. His body was shaking uncontrollably, trying to use the expended energy from the muscles to produce body heat to keep the heart pumping. But the ocean was winning.

Then the sea began to churn around him. Bubbles and small spouts of geysers erupted all around him; but by now, Aleutian was out cold to see his new situation. As the bubbling from the deep became increasingly violent, it made him lose his grip on his pack. His head slowly slipped under the sea, his body lifeless, and floating to the bottom.

Five feet below the waves, his legs collapsed on a hard object that was rising up from the depths of the ocean with Aleutian on top of it. When a slap of cold water hit his face that made him breath in air, he awoke to sounds of metal colliding with itself. Aleutian tried to open his eyes, but another splash of saltwater nailed them shut. Shivering on top of the surface, he could feel the movement of the sea churning around him. Then a warm hand touched his shoulder.

"Hey, you alive?" a young adult voice called out over him, almost as a comforting whisper. All Aleutian could do was moan through the shakes. Numbness was starting to set in from the effects of hypothermia.

"What's you name little one? Can you hear me?" Again, all Aleutian could do was moan.

"Hey," another voice cried out, "get him under fast and put blankets around him quickly before we loose him. Someone will be missing the little one for sure."

"Aye Captain!" the voice over Aleutian replied. "Someone get his bag off the deck."

Aleutian could feel his body getting picked up from the cold, wet wood. He didn't know if he was being rescued or being carried to the afterlife. With his body temperature dropping so low, his brain began to shut off parts of his anatomy that wasn't vital to staying alive. In which part, Aleutian fell unconscious in the arms of his unknown rescuer.

* * *

Knothole City: The present:

Commander Geoffrey St. John was making his way through the scattered layout of huts around the outskirts of Knothole City. He was looking for a particular one in the dead of night with only the cratered moon guiding his way. When his eyes caught the number on the door that Amy, in her tired voice, had said that a certain guest was sleeping at, he stopped, stood at attention, adjusted his green beret and battle blouse; that ran up to his neck and about choked him, and gave two hard knocks that he could have woken the dead with.

Aleutian's eyes went wide when he heard the two loud thuds. He could feel his heart pounding with the added adrenalin of being awakened from his sleep. Most Mobians, and other beings, usually don't have this reaction, but in the case of harden fighters, loud noises coming in the dead of night while they are at their weakest and most vulnerable, sent them in to a flight or fight mode in an instant. He awoke lying on his left side, facing the wall with one of his dreads lying over his mouth. He moved his hand around and brushed it back into place, placing his groggy senses at to where he was. Slowly turning over, he heard a second round of knocks at the door that helped lift more of the heavy haze of sleep from his weary head.

"Who is it?" he shouted at the door.

"Commander St. John of the King's Secret Service. Your presence is required," he shouted with his thick English accent.

Aleutian knew from the sound of St. John's voice that one: it was urgent, and two: St. John was very disciplined and possibly has the same amount of training as him. "I'll be with you in a second," he groaned at the door.

"Make it fast, mate!" St. John replied, turning his back away from the door and against the wall, putting his posture at ease.

Aleutian slowly got up from his bed and looked over at the clock that was sitting on a night stand next to his gun. It read 3:21 in the morning. He and the rest of the group had gotten in about eleven in the evening from their little trip to Angel Island. After Tails led him to the hut, he crashed in the warm bed and went right off to sleep, passing the crying stage that he thought he was going to endure. Now he was wondering where he had put some of his clothes after he striped them off in a hurry to get to sleep. He found his torn shirt and figured that was all he needed. Next he discovered his socks were bundled together in one of his boots. He dressed his feet with the thick green stockings and fastened his boots on as well. The black jack-boots clicked as Aleutian slammed the two buckles closed.

The Guardian stood up from his bed, stretched his back that replied with pops from the nitrogen gases that had built up in the joints. As he stretched even higher though, he felt his lower back muscle on his left side began to stiffen up with a hint of pain. He shrugged the old war wound off as walked over to the door and opened it.

Geoffrey was at the ready when he heard the knob turn. He moved to the side to formally greet Knothole's new resident, "Hello sir..."

"...Don't call me sir. Aleutian will do just fine," the groggy echidna said.

"Sorry, but I like to be formal when it comes to some one of your stature, mate," St John replied, as he looked at Aleutian square in the eyes.

Aleutian sized Geoffrey up, only noticing the strict military bearing in his stance and demeanor. St. John on the other hand saw a lot more in Aleutian in the way he stood erect; some one to either greatly respect, or be very edgy around. But he was disappointed though; the Guardian looked to skinny in the muscles to even hold up to who he was suppose to be. If fact, St. John thought Aleutian had spent sometime at one of Robonick's work camps from the way he looked. And the scars...

"What can I do for you Commander? I take it you aren't here to see the moon set before the sun rise," came Aleutian.

"Right!" agreed St. John and getting to the point. "Rotor needs your assistance at the command hut," he answered, holding his arm out that gestured the way Aleutian needed to go.

Pivoting his torso, Aleutian started marching. "What's going on?" he asked.

"We've received a distress call about eighty miles away from Angel Island. Since you happened to be on a certain ship coming out from that area, and for the record, having said you have something up your sleeve, we figured you might be of some assistance about now?"

"I take it, it can't wait?" groaned Aleutian from the little sleep he has had, also wondering why he called the Island, "Angle Island?"

"Afraid not."

St. John guided Aleutian into the command hut. Right off, the Guardian noticed the big screen that showed a blown up image of the ocean and a red flashing light not far from the Island.

"Nice screen."

"Thanks, its new thanks to Knuckles losing his temper," Rotor said as he stepped from around the corner, his glasses hanging at the edge of his face with his brown bomber jacket hanging loosely around his purple, leathery skinned torso.

"A bit of a trait in the family I'm afraid," replied Aleutian wearily as he looked over at the walrus, "and you might be?"

"Rotor's the name, but others call me Boomer," he replied, sipping at a drink that he grabbed from a table. "And you must be Aleutian? Knuckles's brother, right?" he asked, gazing at Aleutian's white mark from under the torn shirt.

"Yep," replied Aleutian bluntly, crossing his arms as he studied the screen.

"Mayday, Mayday, Mayday...can anyone hear us? We are Overlanders in grid AJ 25. We are being fired upon from an unknown source. I don't know how much longer we can last. Can anyone help?" shouted a male voice through the speakers.

"Overlanders? What in blazes are they doing that close to Angel Island?" asked St. John.

"Either lost or running away from somewhere else." replied Aleutian, as he unfolded his arms and looked over at Rotor, "are you going to send help or are you gonna reply to them?"

"Neither! We can't help anyone at the moment?" answered St. John.

"And why?" inquired Aleutian with a gruff voice.

Rotor answered for St. John. "We found this out by an encrypted message that Eggman had sent to a bot of some sort via satellite..."

"...And so far, that fat bloke thinks his ciphers haven't been cracked, and we need to keep him thinking that way," St. John finished.

"So, you are going to let some Overlanders die so you can make Eggman think that his codes haven't been compromised?" Aleutian asked coldly, crossing his arms in disgust.

"That's the sad truth, sir; but we have can't take that chance. If he discovers that we have cracked his encryption program and he sets out make a new one; a good year of work will be down the drain..."

"Please help us! Someone! We have ran out of countermeasure and a salvo is closing in!" This time a female voice was pleading over the airways. "We have children aboard! Can anyone please help us?"

Aleutian's head snapped to St. John with fire in his eyes. "You gonna do something?"

"Not much we can do. I have my orders from the King..."

"...Have you ever disobeyed orders before!?"

"No!" Geoffrey replied harshly, knowing his answer was a lie.

"Fine time you start Commander!" Aleutian coldly seethed out.

"I will not sir. Besides, they are well out of range for us to be of any help, mate...!"

All of a sudden, static filled the intercoms in the command room. With the static, the flashing red light blinked out in a instant. The room fell silent. Rotor then pressed the button that silenced the speakers. He slowly looked down at the console and whimpered a prayer to himself.

Aleutian threw his arms down to his sides and turned his back from the screen, his eyes narrowing from his anger. He sighed before he opened his mouth. "I need a map with a key, preferably in Kilometers. It needs to be of the East Coast and with the latest projected track of the Floating Island. I also need a pen, a ruler, and compass. Not the one that tells direction but the..."

"...I know what you need, Aleutian," came Rotor. The walrus walked over to an adjacent room that had two book cases filled with cardboard circles. He read through the names that were on the covers of the tubes, and came to the one he was looking for. Removing a white cap from it, he slide a rolled up paper sheet from the tube.

Rotor strolled to the table that Aleutian was leaning over along with St. John, and tossed the roll on the table. Turning away again, Rotor proceeded to a small desk on the other end of the room. He slid one of the drawers out and gathered what Aleutian had asked for: a ruler, a pencil, and a device that had two legs with needled points at the bottoms. Rotor returned to the small table with them in his hands.

Aleutian nodded to Rotor with a smile. He liked people he knew their stuff. With that, Aleutian put his left hand on the edge of the rolled up map and with his right and smacked the roll itself, unraveling it's image of Mobius Prime's East Coast and the Ocean.

Just then a pink female hedgehog came inside, her eyes sagging heavy from the lack of sleep. "You all need anything?" she asked dryly, hoping to go back to bed in an instant.

Aleutian looked over at the pink hedgehog. "You have any tea, miss?"

"Yes we do. It's a little hot, if that's okay?"

"That will be fine, and please have some sugar in it."

"Okay, anyone else?" Amy asked, sounding exhausted. Rotor and St. John, who had his arms crossed and looking over Aleutian's shoulder, shook their heads at Amy.

As she tuned away, Aleutian began to go to work. He first marked a point on the map that was over four hundred miles south from the boundaries of the old Overlander Territory. Turning and looking over his shoulder at the large screen, he observed where Angel Island was. That too he marked on the map. Aleutian then dotted a mark at the end of a channel that ran between two islands; to the north was a small one, and to the south a larger one.

"That ship went down here, right?" Aleutian asked as he looked over at Rotor, pointing at the grid where the Overlander Family had just lost their lives. Rotor just nodded. Aleutian marked that as well on the map. He then took the ruler, connected the dots with the straight edge, and drew a line to the marks.

Amy soon returned with a hot cup of tea for Aleutian. The echidna thanked her and began to sip at the hot drink instantly. Amy just stood by and watched.

Picking up the compass, Aleutian went over to the key that was marked on top of the map. He adjusted the distance of the compass to the five hundred kilometer mark on the key. He then placed one of the points of the instrument on the mark on the mainland side, and centered the second point on the line he drew. He then pivoted the compass across the line that led between the two islands. St. John could see the echidna counting to himself as he moved the compass points across the map.

Aleutian stopped when one of the points of the compass went a little over the mark between the islands. He penciled in the stop, positioned a point on the original mark and pivoted the compass across the map to the known location of Angel Island. The last needle landed right on the dot. Aleutian then went back to the key and measured the compass against the fifty kilometer rule. He went back to the mark that was between the two islands and moved the compass over to the original marked point on the map and beside the added dot of the overshoot. The compass barley reached it.

Picking up the pencil, Aleutian jotted down: 2,950 on the map. He then scratched his head and looked down at his feet, putting the numbers through their paces:

"Over four and a half days to the Island!" Aleutian said, pushing himself away from the table in frustration.

"Yea, so, we can do it in under an hour with our ship," came Rotor.

"And you want to be blown to pieces...why?" Aleutian exaggerated.

"What are you talking about echidna?" asked St. John, making his tone sound gruff, "and why all this in kilometers?"

"Because the Plunger can do twenty-four to thirty clicks per hour, plus, most of her gauges are in metric," replied Aleutian with a smile.

Rotor looked over at Aleutian, his face lite up like a Christmas tree. "The Plunger? I...I thought that boat was a myth?"

"What boat...what myth!" cried out Geoffrey, jittering his head back and forth between the echidna and the walrus.

"The boat that disappears and then reappears someplace else. I heard its supposed to be haunted?" replied Rotor, almost frantic now.

"Haunted, no. Disappears, yes." Aleutian said, grinning at Rotor. "Where have you learned about the Plunger, Rotor?"

"Stories from some of the Mobians that ventured through Mobotropolis before Eggman it back took over. But they sounded like old sea dog stories. You know...fairy tales." Aleutian just smiled with his arms crossed. Rotor looked over his glasses at him with shock. "Its true?"

Aleutian just nodded with his sly grin, his long scar on his snout angling up as he did so. He turned to St. John, his smile disappearing. "I need some of your finest, Commander. I need people who are quick on their feet, plus with skills."

"What kind of skills?" Geoffrey demanded with a frown.

"I need people that are strong, who can follow orders, give 110 in effort, and in particular, a doctor and cook. Oh, and people who are good with mechanical equipment and electronics, and someone who can listen well. Not by orders, I mean by hearing faint noises."

"You just named most of the Freedom Fighters!" Geoffrey exclaimed as he looked over at Rotor, his oversized pompadour waving from the gesture. "I need to run this by the Princess and possibly the King if he is up to it. I don't think they want most of our brute force going on a sea cruise."

"And Commander," shot back Aleutian, "my kind are about to send a bunch of refugees your way. What ever that thing is under the surface, its right in their way to get here. You already lost a family today, you want to loose a whole bunch instead!?" remarked Aleutian, his eyes narrowing at St. John. "Wake the Princess, get her permission and wake up the city. That ship leaves Floating Island in five days as of this morning. We have that long to hunt and sink whatever it is that is out there. The more time you drag your feet, the odds increase for them."

St. John just nodded and started out the door...fumed.

* * *

The skunk's anger glowed through the night sky. Taking orders from a new comer, and from an unknown new comer at that, wasn't sitting well with him. But what really bothered him was the look Aleutian gave him. That scarred face kept racing through his mind.

St. John arrived at Sally Acorn's residence in Castle Acorn. He knew she would be asleep but urgency required her to get up at four in the morning. He knocked twice with the same loud thuds as he gave Aleutian. The damp morning made the knocks echo through the quiet suite.

Sally rolled over in her bed and glanced at the time. She couldn't believe what the red digital numbers were telling her. With a long, tired, frustrated voice, she called out. "What!?"

"Your Highness, it's me St. John. Our new guest has some demands," he angrily shouted at the doubled oak doors.

Sally rolled her still sleepy eyes at the ceiling from thought of Aleutian. "What does he want at this hour?"

"Some of our people to go on a sea cruise!" replied St. John. "Can I enter your Highness?"

Sally got up and put her vest on before allowing Geoffrey to enter. The Commander marched in and bowed his head before he let out what was on his mind. "That bloke is giving me orders, Your Highness!"

"And you are following them 'cause...?" Sally pointed out, crossing her arms.

"'Cause I don't know if I want to find out who he really is at the moment."

"What are you afraid of Commander?" retorted Sally. She knew nothing scared him.

St. John look to the ceiling before he spoke, choosing his words carefully before he began. "Something my father told me long ago Sally. No matter how good you are and how strong you are, there is someone out there that can out match you. I think this Aleutian is one of them."

"And you say this because?"

"Your Highness, he shot me a look that I have only seen a few times. It's a look that either demands respect, or fear the person who gave it to you."

"A look that means business, right St. John?" Sally asked, knowing full well what Geoffrey was referring to.

"More than that. It's a look that shows he has killed before. Not bots, but living things."

"Newsflash St. John; he killed someone yesterday to save Julie-Su from losing her neck!"

"What? And I didn't hear about this till now! Who'd he kill?" asked the surprised Commander.

"Some dog named Blackjack. He was a hired goon for Ebony Hare."

"How'd' he do it?" the frantic skunk asked next.

"He shot him Geoffrey, right in the head! And then he had Downtown drag his body out of Knothole."

"Why didn't you arrest Ebony? I have warrants out for him?"

"I was a little busy St. John!" she grunted and hissed at the same time. "Now, what does this clown want?" Sally asked, getting to the point.

"He wants some of our people with some skills. What he needs for skills sends some of our finest away. It could leave us wide open, Princess."

Sally nodded her head in consideration, her long wav red hair following the gesture. "And what will this voyage be doing?"

"He said something about getting to Angel Island before the Echidnas make their journey to Mobius Prime. I don't know what good that it's going to do to stop whatever it is under the Ocean, but he is talking about a four day voyage."

"He means to hunt it St. John. How, I don't know, but he means to hunt it and kill it before his people end up dealing with it," Sally breathed out, looking down at the floor before making her decision. "Give him what he wants, Geoffrey..."

"...But Your Highness!'

"Just do it Commander! He _is_ a Guardian, St. John, and Guardians usually have a good reason for doing something, especially when it concerns the interests of their own."

"But can we trust him with our own people!"

Sally crossed her arms around her back, thinking hard at what she saw of Aleutian so far and St. John's concerns about him. "In the mean time, yes Geoffrey, but when he returns, I want you to interrogate him. Find out more about him," Sally took a long look straight into Geoffrey's eyes. "That look you just described, he gave me that after he sent Ebony out of Knothole. You know nothing stops me St. John, but that cold stare he gave me, sent chills through my bones,"

Sally drew in a long breath of air and turned her back on St. John, crossing her arms in front of her this time. "Give him what and who he wants. These refugees that the Echidnas are sending could help us. If this Aleutian has a way to kill whatever's out there, let him have his way. But when he gets back, we _will_ put a leash on him."

St. John happily smiled with Sally's words. He nodded at her and started his way to get what Aleutian had asked for.

"Oh and St. John. You can begin by putting Rogue on this," Sally said, snapping her head back to catch the skunk before he left, "I want that thief occupied with something else besides stealing."

"As you wish Your Highness. That can definitely be arranged."

* * *

St. John returned to the command center with a load of files secured in a black case. He opened the case and sorted the files on the table. Aleutian had his arms crossed and stared at the table while Geoffrey produced the white folders that had "Top Secret" stamped in red on top of them. When the Commander produced the last one he slammed it down on the table, grabbing Rotor's attention.

"Okay Echidna, this is all that we can spare. You can pick who you want out of these."

Aleutian nodded and walked over to the table, the overhead light casting a shadow over the table as he stepped forward. He opened the first folder, scrolled through it quickly, and slapped it down beside the long row of personnel files. "He goes," he said. He then grabbed the next one, looked through it, and placed it back in it's original spot. "She stays." he announced, placing Amy's file down.

This went on for a few minutes until he had a good pile of folders in a nice stack. St. John looked over the stack of who Aleutian had chosen. The Commander was impressed. Aleutian had picked most of the Chaotix expect Charmy, and he also choose Rotor for the obvious mechanical know how; plus, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Julie-Su, and Dr. Quack.

"Do you have anyone who can cook, Commander?" Aleutian asked, his tone deep and tired.

"Dr. Quack is pretty good."

"If you say so," Aleutian replied annoyed.

"I do Mr. Aleutian. Also, by request of Princess Sally Acorn, you are to take Rogue the Bat along with you."

"_Princess Sally ACORN!?"_ Aleutian shouted to himself. _"So, that's who she reminds me of. Wonder if she knows of her brother? Not a good time or place to ask, bub. Just keep that to yourself for now."_

"Sounds fine with me. More the merrier Commander," Aleutian said, "now lets go toss them out of bed."

* * *

One by one, St. John awoke those of whom Aleutian had chosen, and one by one, they assembled in the small parade field where Aleutian was awaiting them. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Julie-Su were absolutely "thrilled" about only getting a few hours of sleep, and standing in the wet morning grass in the dark. The Choatix weren't that far off either.

"Okay, listen up. For those who don't know me, my name is Aleutian, and I _am_ Knuckles's brother," Aleutian started out, almost sounding ashamed of being who he was. "In five days and counting, a ship is going to set sail from the Floating Island. From what I have been told, that ship is carrying families of those that are either to afraid, or to frail and sick to help the underground movement to fight the enemy on the Island. The bad news is, there's a Bot that lies beneath their path. I think the bot is programed to intercept anything flying to or from the Floating Island, but I'm sure any sea going vessel isn't going to stand a chance with that thing out there either."

Aleutian put his hands behind his back and swallowed to clear his throat. "But, there is a way to sink that Bot. There is a boat on the East Coast, and she has the means and ways to do the job, but she lacks a good crew. Commander St. John here," Aleutian commended as he pointed to him, "has let me review you personnel files, and I have chosen who I'll need for this cruise. You are it! Sonic, I need your speed and quick reaction. Miles, for your knowledge in electronics and mechanics along with Rotor. Mighty, I know of your kind and I need someone who can lift some very heavy 'fishes.'" Mighty looked around with a puzzled look, wondering what this "echidna" meant by "fishes."

"Dr. Quack...take a guess sir," Aleutian said, before pointing to Espio, "I have something lined up for you...I think, but I can definitely use someone with your attitude. And Vector, I hope you can still hear under those headphones?"

"You bet bro!" Vector acknowledged with a thumbs up.

"Good, cause you're going to be listening for what ever it is that's down there. And lets see, Julie-Su and Rogue, I'll think of something."

Julie-Su looked over at Knuckles, hoping that he could see her discontent of going to be working with Rogue. Knuckles just kept staring at his brother with an uneven face.

"You all have two hours to grab what you need and be ready to leave. St. John, do we have a ship at the ready?"

St. John looked coldly in Aleutian's eyes. "Yes, and Princess Sally will be piloting it. Is that all right with you?"

Aleutian jerked his head back from the crude response. "As long as we get to where we need to be St. John, I don't care who flies." Aleutian was starting to get the feeling he had stepped on someone's precious toes. That someone happened to be a skunk with a green beret.

Aleutian turned back to the gathered "forced" volunteers. "Dr. Quack, I understand you can cook?"

"Yes sir, I can."

"Awesome, go down to you all's food supply, grab enough to feed all of us, plus one more person, for two weeks."

"I'm gonna need help with that," Quack said, raising his voice.

"As soon as I get my stuff I'll be there. I don't have much to pack, and when any of you are done packing your stuff, please help me and Dr. Quack. Time is short and we have a little over four days to get there by the time we leave. So let's go!"

St. John saw the Freedom Fighters nod their heads and scattered to the four winds to get their bags packed. Aleutian turned his back to Geoffrey and was walking away when St. John did something very stupid; the disgruntled skunk reached out with his right hand and grabbed Aleutian's left shoulder. "Now you just..."

Before St. John could release his built up anger on the source, Aleutian placed his right hand on top of Geoffrey's hand that he'd laid harshly on Aleutian's shoulder. With a quick step sideways to the right, Aleutian pushed with his thumb down on St. John's hand right, above his index finger's knuckle. Pain shot through the Commander's arm that signaled his hand to turn over, hyper extending his wrist. Reversing his direction in one quick fluid motion, Aleutian stepped a little to the right side of St. John while firmly holding onto his hand. This sent Geoffrey's elbow to the stars, putting his arm in a very stiff angle. He could feel his shoulder about to snap, and with that knowledge being shot to his brain, via pain, he knew if Aleutian would put anymore pressure in the right manner; Aleutian could break his arm at the elbow.

This little maneuver only took a half a second to execute, and Sally saw it all. She ran towards the two and was going to put her foot down when she thought other wise. "Okay noble Commander, get out of that one!"

St. John grunted the pain out through his clenched teeth before stating what he knew. "I would if I could Your Highness, but if I move in anyway..."

"...I break your arm," Aleutian finished, "Commander, I was hoping you would have known better than to touch my back like that. Especially with the way I carry myself."

St. John looked on at Aleutian with his mouth opened, mostly breathing in to slow the pain. "You can let go now," he grunted.

Aleutian smiled and released St. John. Geoffrey massaged his arm out from being hyper extended as he stared coldly at Aleutian. He hadn't had his arm stretched like that since his training days, and the move that Aleutian did was a little alien to him. "When you get back, we're gonna have a long chat, mate."

"Whatever you say sir, but it won't be pretty though. And I was beginning to like you."

"Oh really, and how so!?" Geoffrey fired off.

"Because you look like a guy I could get along with. Unfortunately, I think I blew that with the way I am. Maybe when I get back, we can start over?"

St. John nodded to Aleutian, crossing his sore arm over the other. "I think you have a ship to catch in a couple of hours. Best be on your way Guardian," he said, his opinion somewhat changing as he did.

"Yes I do. And St. John?"

"Yes?" he grimaced

"I'm not the Guardian, Knuckles is."

"But the mark sir?"

Aleutian just shook his head and walked away, grimacing his face under the pale moonlight.

Sally approached St. John and touched his arm. "What was that about?"

St. John had to think that question over himself. "How long do you want him to stay?" changing the subject quickly.

Sally looked into Geoffrey's eyes with a fierce, fiery look. "I want him gone when they get back. I think this guy is too dangerous and a hack at best."

"And I think we can use someone like him with his expertise."

"What, with his cold heart!?"

"That is a simple fix, Your Highness."

Sally crossed her arms and gave St. John what all males hate to get, "the look". "And what would that be?"

"Time, Princess. Time and direction...and lots of therapy"

* * *

Aleutian grabbed his weapons, coat, and hat and went on to help the good doctor, slowly followed by the rest of the team. Soon, they had packed everything away and got themselves settled into their seats. Sally showed up with the maps from the command center, and handed them to Aleutian, who was working with his coat off; his black pistol tucked solidly in its holster. Sal didn't care too much for guns but respected the people who carried them; even if they were on her side or not. For Aleutian, that was probably the only respect he got from her.

"So who is this other person that will be coming along?" asked Sally.

"A very dear friend of mine. It will be his boat we'll be using, and, I think you might find the old dog interesting."

"How so?"

"He knows your father." Sally was about to open her mouth when Aleutian stopped her. "Be patient Princess. You'll find out soon enough, but, for now, we need to get going. How long do you think it will take us to get there?"

Sally looked at her watch and checked the distance to the coast, "About twenty minutes."

Aleutian turned around to the now seated crew. "You all, grab a wink of shut eye on the way. We're going to be very busy as soon as we land."

They all nodded and went back to their conversations.

Knuckles reached over and made sure Julie-Su's straps were snug and tight. She just smiled at him. "I'm fine Knux."

"Hey lover boy, want to check mine," came a mocking Rogue.

"Two weeks eh, I can drown her by then!" snorted Julie-Su.

Sonic just rolled his eyes around the cramped cabin. "Oh boy. This is gonna be fun."

* * *

Sally piloted the ship mostly with the autopilot. She just laid back and watched the very fast sunrise as they crossed the time zones. The glow from the new-day sun radiated around her, casting an orange glow around her face. _"This is what we are fighting for."_ She looked back occasionally, seeing Sonic peacefully sleeping in the reclined seat. Her heart still loved him, but her mind was in-between it and him. Sonic had broken up with a certain red fox named Fiona, and to Sally's delight; she was actually quite glad that Fiona was out of the picture. But time apart for a year when Sonic went chasing the stars put a wedge between them...plus her father. All Sally could do was wait and see if things will change again, and she hoped it did. In some humbled way, she missed him...but not all of him.

The ride was uneventful, except for the hard touch down in a small open field. Down a small hill, Sally could see a house with a few windows, and a chimney that was burning. She began to power down the ship and activated the ramp in the rear, scanning the area to make sure that they didn't get lured into a trap of some kind. It showed her reservations for Aleutian still.

Aleutian walked up behind her. "As soon as you are done, meet me at the front door of the house down the hill."

Sally kept her attention on the instrument panel, waving her hand at Aleutian. "Okay," she replied still sounding annoyed as she replied.

Aleutian tipped his hat and moved to the rear of the bay. "Okay, get everything ready to off load. As soon as I get things situated, we can start loading. All right?"

"Sure thing, dude," said Sonic with a thumbs up. The rest of the rag tag crew were doing their best to open their eyes.

Aleutian started down the off ramp alone, his coat flapping in the morning breeze. A feeling came over him that he hadn't felt in ages; the sense of going on an adventure. It was an odd feeling for him now; it felt alien to his heart and seeing himself in the dark drab strengthened that thought. He took a deep breath to shun the feelings and thoughts away, but the summer smells of the surrounding woods to his right, plus the view of the tall grass of the field that he stood in, only enhanced the now painful thoughts.

Knuckles walked down the ramp and beside him, only seeing the anxiety on Aleutian's face for a brief instance. "Mind if I tag along for _once_?" he asked coldly.

Aleutian rolled his eyes towards the sky. "Don't start this now Knuckles..."

"...Start what, I think it already has for...how long?" Knuckles shot back, eyeing his last phrase.

Aleutian stuck both of his hands out, gesturing a plea to his brother. "Just keep quite for this, please."

Knuckles followed his brother down the small hill to the door of the mid-sized, yellow bricked house. He could see Aleutian was a little apprehensive with what he was about to do. When they got to the final steps, Aleutian was biting his lower lip and fidgeting his hands inside his pockets. Aleutian stopped at the door, taking his hands out of his pocket and rubbed them before he took the plunge. He raised his right hand up and knocked on the door.

For a moment their was no answer, but then the door squeaked when it was pulled open from inside. From the dark inside stepped out a salt and peppered haired Dingo, his muzzle littered with grey patches around his snout over the lightly brown hair of his younger days. He stood erect with a sharp military bearing, almost towering over the two brothers. The morning breeze flapped his tropical open buttoned shirt that was colored with red, white and purple roses. In his right hand was a cup of coffee that was still steaming from being freshly brewed. His feet were covered by a black pair of house shoes that looked as if they went through a marathon.

The Dingo starred at Aleutian hard before he spoke, his look could have burned a hole right through him. "You!?"

Aleutian gasped with his mouth opened, looking around the door frame with a heavy exaggerated look, throwing his arms up in a "what gives" fashion. "What do you mean 'YOU?'"

"Precisely..._you_!"

"Come on, it's me...Aleutian!"

"Really, with all that black on and that hat, I'm not so sure anymore? The Aleutian I knew didn't wear this gangster coat and hat everywhere he went. And the guns. One was fine but how many now..."

"...I've had to wear this for what I had been doing."

"Oh,..._had_ been doing, that means you can take it off, RIGHT?"

"Look," Aleutian pleaded with the palm of his hands to hopefully calm his old mentor, "I've really taken on a fashion for this for some reason..."

"That's the fashion of a monster, one that is not you. Have you gone home yet?" the Dingo asked harshly, cutting Aleutian off from his hollow excuses.

"Yes," replied Aleutian looking down to his feet in the process.

"Oh, you haven't gone ho– what did you just say?" The Dingo enquired, doing a double take when Aleutian's words finally registered in his brain.

"I've been back home, Mathias," replied Aleutian, his voice dropping to a soft pitch, his eyes enforcing what he said. Aleutian looked over at Knuckles, who happened to be just a figment in the Dingo's mind at the time. Aleutian reached around and put his hand on Knuckles's right shoulder. "Sir Mathias Drake, this is my brother Knuckles. He was the one who had to take me home."

Knuckles just looked on with his mouth slightly opened. He couldn't believe that one of Aleutian's friends was asking the same questions that he wanted to know! _"So who is he 'really'"_ Knuckles asked himself. Maybe their was a different side of Aleutian after all?

Mathias looked down at his coffee, and gently sat it down on a table that was inside by the door. He took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. With a hard smile, he looked over at Knuckles and approached him a little further. "Allow me to shake your hand son. It's about time someone dragged his tail back to where it belonged!" Mathias bursted out, extended his right hand. Knuckles met it with a firm squeeze, but mostly doing it by being friendly.

"Mathias, we need your help," said Aleutian with a voice that met all business, "do you think you and the Plunger have one more left in you?"

The Dingo's face went wide with joy. "I need a crew!"

"We have one," replied Knuckles.

"And I hand picked them all. We even brought supplies for the voyage," affirmed Aleutian, grinning at his work.

"How many, Aleutian?" asked the overjoyed Dingo.

"Eleven, including myself. You'll be number twelve."

"Far short from the minimum of sixteen."

"I couldn't get that many, Mathias," replied Aleutian, solemnly.

Sally stepped out of the ship with the map in her hand. She could see the two echidnas talking to someone, but she really couldn't see that far to identify who it was. As she got closer, she could make out a dog of some sort with a sly smile painted across his face. Then it hit her. _"Why would they be talking to a Dingo of all people?"_ Sally asked herself.

Mathias looked beyond Aleutian and his brother at the female squirrel that was steadily approaching them. All he could see of her was a brown and red blur, but he knew a squirrel when he saw one; even without his glasses. Mathias felt for his specs in his right shirt pocket, unfolding them and wrapping them around his face. He couldn't believe his eyes even when they cleared up with his glasses.

"Still like your glasses, Mathias?" asked Aleutian.

Knuckles was about to ask one of many important questions he had when Mathias began to quickly button up his shirt. He didn't understand why he was going to such great lengths to look neat even after Aleutian had already introduced him to the old Dingo. His thoughts were scattered when Mathias pushed both brothers aside and marched with his back erect and his shoulders back.

Mathias locked stepped right up to Sally, stopping right in front of her at a strict attention after he crossed the grassy void. Sally looked at the grey haired Dingo with a cautious look, almost fearful at the sight of him. "Can I help you?" she asked.

Mathias dropped to one knee and bowed right before Sally. "Your Highness. I am Sir Mathias Drake," the Dingo said, rising with his head still bowed at a perfect forty-five degree angle to the ground, "you are a spiten' image of your mother, dear Princess."

Sally's mouth fell to the grassy ground, "You know my Mother?" she asked in shock.

"And you father, King Maximillian Acorn. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have the Sir in front of my name."

Sally brought her hand up and touched her chest in a curious awe. "You've served my Father? When?"

"Many, many years ago during the Great War. And when he was banished, I still served him."

"How, dear sir?"

"By helping you my dear Princess," Mathias gently replied.

"How have you helped me, Knight?" asked Sally with a puzzled look. She had no recollection of a Dingo helping them except some taxi driver that was in the heart of downtown "Dingo Land" on Angel Island.

Mathias extended his arm towards his house. "Come my dear, we have much to talk about."

They walked over to Aleutian and Knuckles, who were still hogging the door. Knuckles's head was going in every direction upon seeing the Dingo bow before Sally. "What's going on, Aleutian."

"Long story Knuckles. You'll have two weeks to hear it."

"Along with yours?"

"Possibly," Aleutian replied in a soft spoken voice.

Mathias approached the two Guardians with Sally in tow behind him. "So what is so important to bring Mobius's Finest to my home, Aleutian?"

"I'll let the Princess brief you Mathias. I need to go to my place and grab some things. Is my hover car still here?"

"Yes, in the garage and all charged up. Fine vehicle you have."

"One of a few I don't find time to drive. Thanks for taking care of it for me."

"Pleasure was all mine," replied a very grateful Dingo. Mathias loved that car. It handled well, and the dynamic terrain sensors made the ride smooth as silk.

Knuckles followed his brother down to the small garage. It was positioned on the north side of the house, with two brown double doors marking its entrance. Aleutian pulled the rusty handles and lifted them. The doors caravanned up to the roof, and slid along the ceiling. What the morning sunlight reveled was a slick black sedan hover car. The grill had an oval shape to it and had the only trace of chrome on the body. The headlights were concealed under the hood of the car, but Knuckles could make out the teardrop outline of them.

"Can I come with?" asked Knuckles.

Aleutian looked over at him and nodded his head, only concealing his feelings that he really didn't want his brother to come along. "Yeah', why not. You can help me load some things."

Aleutian grabbed a remote from a cabinet on the wall, pressed the unlock button on it for the car, and then pressed the start button. The car rose as the twin hover engines came to life. Then the turbo booster began it's warm up processes, which didn't last for more than a minute, the whine was surpassingly quiet to Knuckles. Most of the cars he rode in, when Echidnaolopis was actually in the hands of the echidna's and its rightful citizens, where actually loud as they screamed down the street with their turbine engines. But Aleutian's car was relatively quiet compared to what he rode in before.

Aleutian jumped in the driver side and started activating the drive mechanisms inside the car. Knuckles piled into the passenger seat with the moldy car smell, hitting him like a fast moving freight train. "Can we open the windows? Boy that's bad!"

"You too huh," Aleutian said, quickly doing what Knuckles requested. The air was making him just want to walk to his house. "I think Mathias only took the car out just for joy rides." Knuckles only nodded at Aleutian's remark.

The car's gauges soon lit up with their assorted green, red, and yellow LED lights, telling Aleutian of what was functioning. Looking down at the center console, Aleutian grabbed the small shifter, pulled it lightly back, and engaged the turbo drive in the forward direction. Pressing the accelerator, the car inched it's way out of the cramped car-hold.

Rounding the house, Aleutian slowly crept beside Mathias and Sally, who were still talking at the door. Knuckles could see Sonic making his way down to the house with bags in tow around his arms.

"We'll be back," Aleutian said, "shouldn't be more than an hour. Go over my course plots and make sure I have everything correct Mathias. It's been awhile."

"Not to worry Aleutian, that makes two of us," smiled Mathias.

"Hate to miss the fanfare, but time is of the essence." And with that, Aleutian pressed the accelerator hard and the car rocket forward along the embankment, heading south.

A little while out, he set the altitude cruise to two hundred feet, it was the max height at which the car could travel. The steering wheel was more like a silver aircraft yoke, with the throttle settings lighting up in green dots around the center.

"So, how far is your house?" asked Knuckles as he squirmed around in the black leather seats.

Aleutian took his hat off and placed it on the dash before he replied. "About a hundred miles..."

* * *

"...That's where this thing seems to be patrolling at, Your Highness," Mathias clarified as he measured the distance between the last known attack of the bot and Angel Island with his calipers. "Give or take of course, probably hundred and fifty miles at the most. What this Eggman seems to be doing is establishing an air blockade of the Island. Where the Island is at now makes it harder for Eggman to keep an eye on it from people coming and going. It makes perfect sense to have it under the water too."

"Sally, where do we put all this stuff?" asked Sonic from the door; his and Tails' bags were slung over both of his arms.

Mathias looked over at Sonic with a twinkle in his eyes, "Ah, the famous hedgehog! That is Sonic the Hedgehog, right?"

"One and only that I know of."

Mathias looked over at Sally. "You want to see it?"

"See what," asked Sally with a curious look.

"The thing that is going to terminate whatever it is under the sea, and what Eggman hopefully doesn't know about."

Sally and Sonic followed Mathias outside of his house, and rounded the right corner of it to a large dirt path. It was packed in so hard that it could almost be as sturdy as concrete. As they followed the well beaten path down a small fielded valley, Sally caught a whiff of the salted moisture in the air. Her lungs started to feel the sensation of being constricted with the almost hundred percent humidity that lingered in the air as they reached summit of a small him. The valley soon leveled out, exposing more of the rising sun off in the distant. What the two Freedom Fighters saw at the end of the trail, made them almost collapse in shock.

"We're going on _that_ rusty thing?" blurred out Sonic, his question more of defiance than wanting to know the real truth.

What made Sonic and Sally stop in their tracks was that they saw a long, and some what slender, boat that had rust almost all over its grey hull. The rising and falling sea water exposed for brief moments at a time, a large bulge on both sides of the rusted floating hunk of metal. At the center of it stood a small narrow tower. It had what appeared to be two long pols on top of it, with a vertical hoop towards the rear on the left side of it. Around the poles was a rectangular shield that looked three quarters of the way completed, rounding towards the front, but cutting off before reaching the back. Positioned at the rear of the tower, starting at the ends of the shielding, were two rails that formed a large ring around a double-barreled gun that was painted black, except for the barrels; which were a dark grey. Sally could make out the giant square holes where the energy cells were to be placed, and for the weapon to be in "battery"...literally. Under the gun was a pedestal that had roughly the same area of room as the top, and positioned diagonally under the top pedestal that held the gun. The same double rails circled around the edge, but nothing was fixated in the middle of it.

But what caught her eyes the most beside the reddish-brown, weathered paint job; done mostly by nature, was the large grey cannon to the front of the tower. It had a chair on the right side of it with a spotting scope that could engulf someone's face that was centered above the chair. The barrel ran down from the breach for about four meters, fattening from the rear and becoming slender at the business end.

The boat itself, besides the cosmetics, had rectangular holes that littered the side of the hull, and they appeared to be less than a yard across. They started out one by one at the top but patterned at an angle down towards the water. Then the pattern became flush along the waterline, but the holes became rows of two. At the center of the boat, there was a long fissure that ran down the side and on top of the bulges, which then settled back to the rectangular holes that ran towards the rear. The front had the shape of what a normal boat would have, a bow that curved towards the center and had an small anchor fixated in a small hole on the side. The stern though, curved away slightly from the boat instead of inwards.

But what was on the side of the tower triggered the next question to the old Dingo. The shield of the House of Acorn was still visible, even through the fading of the paint, on the steel siding. "Why's my family's shield painted on that tower?"

"Actually, that is the bridge, and the real term... excuse me, 'terms' is either the sail or the conning tower, and the shield marks this vessel as a House Acorn's Ship...more like a boat, really. Ships carry boats, the Plunger just carries life rafts," the Dingo replied in a gruff voice, showing his age. "Allow me to introduceto you, dear Princess, the H.A.S. Plunger."

"So, this is what Aleutian was talking about," replied Sonic, mockingly, "Aren't you worried this thing might sink while we're on it?"

"Actually, I hope it does..." Mathias stated frankly.

"...WHAT!?" Sonic harshly interrupted, not believing his pointy ears.

"That is what it is designed to do, Sonic. The King named it 'The Plunger' for that exact reason...it plunges to the bottom of the sea, and hopefully it comes back up. In simple terms, it's a submarine."

"Why was this made?" asked Sally, her voice softened from what was explained.

"During the Great War, the Overlanders were shipping their supplies by sea. It was how they brought the bulk of the war to Mobotropolis, and to King Max's door step. Looking for a way to slow this, King Max had people research the old archives to find a way to stop it. They uncovered plans for a boat that would submerge itself, then surface again. With these plans, came blueprints for a devastating weapon that it could hold and fire while under the waves. The plans called it a torpedo.

"Her keel was laid in a matter of days. The King's best engineers worked day and night to make sense of the plans. Two of the engineers happened be Julian Kintobor and Sir Charles Hedgehog. They had to learn how the actuators, the pumps, the switch boards, and so on, operated and be put together practically overnight. The other draw back for them, the plans were in German and not many of us could really speak it that well."

Sonic turned to Mathias in a dazed shock, gulping at hearing his Uncle Chuck's name. "My Uncle Chuck help put this thing together?"

"Yep, and he did it the way that the plans had laid her out. Afterwards, the boat went operational in two months. She had her first break downs of course. One almost sunk her on her first run, but she came back up and we patched her up as soon as we got back to Mobotropolis Harbor. After the tenth successful dive and surface, we came back and had major upgrades put in along with her first torpedoes. The upgrades were technology that had been developed over time and was put in her alongside with its older technology that came with the plans. And it helped. On her first patrol, we sank four Overlander ships and their demise helped put a dent in their war effort." Mathias paused before ending his story of the birth of "his" boat. "But it couldn't stop Robotnick," breathed out Mathias in a solemn tone.

"How did you get involved, Mathias?" Sally asked softly, in awe of the history that was being laid out before her.

"I had just become an Officer when I volunteered to help research a way to fight the Overlanders. I came across a book called, 'The Influence of Sea Power Upon History.' It was written by an old Overlander named Alfred Mahan from centuries back. After I read through his book, I grasped an understanding as to how the Overlanders were winning. So I used the same tactic but researched a way to counter it. It was I, who found the plans of the Plunger. When I saw the blueprints of Plunger, I guessed at what this weapon was used for. When I followed up with my revelation to Sir Charles, he agreed with me and we gave the plans to your father. I then, subsequently, became the first, and so far, only Captain of the Plunger.

"Major challenge for me. A young officer, never seeing combat before, sent out with a new crew, a new device that could very easily turn on its masters, and to put forth a new tactic...just like that. And so far, I am here to say that it still works."

Mathias turned to gaze at his rust coated submarine. "And now, she is going to serve The House of Acorn again."

"So, when do we load up?" asked a very ill-patient Sonic.

"Grab all your gear, except the food, and put it down there at the dock. We'll, load the food first after we've opened her up, and get her powered up before we load the rest. Until then, Sonic, I'll let you handle that. I'm sure the Princess has more questions for this old sea dog."

* * *

Please post reviews, tell me what you think and all. Hoped you enjoyed it. Now onto Aleutian's troubled past. 


	5. Dead Portraits

* * *

This chapter sets a different mood from the rest of the book so far. For one, I show why Aleutian is somewhat the way he is. Second; You are going to get hits of a different Aleutian from the past. And this adds to what I am molding.

Again, I don't own any of the Sonic characters and observe the rights of the orginal creators.

**  
**

* * *

**Dead Portraits**

by Mauser:

Aleutian and Knuckles arrived at what appeared to be a one story house; after they traveled up some mountains to get there. The house had a large cream colored stone wall with a walnut front door, and two windows on either side of the door and one a little further down to the left. The house was long with it's roof being flat and brown on top. The grass looked to have not been cut for sometime as it started to grow tall on the outside of the walls. To Knuckles, it looked cozy in a rundown sort of way.

Aleutian parked the car near the front door and got out, his brother soon did likewise. Knuckles looked around to get to know his surroundings; situational awareness, as his father called it. Aleutian's front yard was a long opened grassy field that spread out in all directions. It ended to the west at a tree line about six hundred yards from the door of the house. The tree line stretched from north to south, snaking up and down the rolling hills that made the top of the mountain that they were on. To the south, Knuckles could see it wasn't actually a mountain, but an endless bluff that over looked the sea. Gulls flew by in a "V" formation, catching the early morning thermals from the water. He knew what they were feeling through their feathers. To the north, the bluff curved eastward, sharply. The dark green grass covering the ground like a freshly groomed stripe of fur that flowed with the gentle morning breeze.

Knuckles heard Aleutian unlocking the door and began to twist the brass knob, turning in time to see the dark wooden door opening, slowly revealing the inside of the house.

As Aleutian stepped through the wooden framed entrance, he mentally greeted the empty house. _"Honey, I'm home."_ He paused inside for a moment, anticipating a very warm greeting would come for him; but Aleutian painfully remembered that there wasn't going to be one anymore.

With his renewed realization of being back in the empty house that had belonged to two Echidnas, he painstakingly brought himself back to reality and pushed on inside. Aleutian should feel happy that he was at "his" home, but without her, the homecoming was just as empty as the house.

When Knuckles slowly walked in, his shoes landed on soft blue carpet made him fell that he was waltzing on the moon. He was awed at the decor that littered the place that glowed in orange from the assaulting sunlight. It shined through two doubled doors with a checkered board window arrangement. The doors, along with the window ledge to the right, that had a wilted flower in a white clay base sitting in the middle, were constructed from walnut. Knuckles gathered that Aleutian must have like the wood since some of the door frames that Knuckles could see down a long corridor to his right, also had the brown stained wood around them.

Looking down the hall, he noticed that it began where a bookcase had ended. That bookcase became two when he followed it with his widen eyes to the left, the shelves ending right next to one of the front windows. The bookshelves towered all the way up to the dry-walled ceiling, and they were loaded to the edges with volumes of literature. Not a single space was spared. At the bottom of one of the cases, half of a shelf was dedicated to white scrolls that had wooden handles at the ends. They were stacked neatly in protective wooden holes.

Knuckles' eyes traced the excess wall in front of him. It had a small closet towards the beginning of the hallway, but the rest of the creamed colored wall traced down to the right where it morphed into a narrow white topped table. The table ended with two steps that descended down to a tile floor. The steps snaked to the right and curved to the east and ended at a window-less wall. Over Knuckles's right shoulder, he saw two leather sitting chairs with one having an end table with a lamp on it, along with two couches in front of them. They were positioned in a square that wasn't exactly flush with the walls of the house. In the center of the square was a long table that barely gave any leg room to spare. At the center of the south wall was another door that seemed to be a little shorter than the rest on the inside and it looked to have led outside.

Aleutian strolled over to the small closet and opened it. Clutching both hands at either side of his unbuttoned coat, and with one quick motion, jerked the long black coat off. He let his arms fall as the coat was overtaken by gravity. When the dark coat settled to the floor, Aleutian held two black plasma blasters in each hand. After seeing him already do this movement once before, Knuckles knew his brother had to be showing off. But for Aleutian, it was keeping in training...his own training.

He placed both weapons on the top shelf of the closet after he ejected the two energy cells that littered on top of the black coat. Picking up the discarded cells, he pilled them on top of each other and placed them by the two blaster pistols. He then reached down and picked up his coat, grabbed a hanger from the closet, and wrapped the long overcoat around it. He then turned away from the closet, after he hanging his black, unpleasant coat up, and marched down the hall to a room on the left. Aleutian still wore the body armor that was over the green shirt that had been ripped down the center from the day before. Secured around the vest was a shoulder rig that held the big, long, black pistol in its leathery clutches. Under his right arm, Knuckles noticed, was where Aleutian kept his spare mags, but down on his right thigh, over his pants, was another holster with another blaster in it, _"How many guns does he have to carry, and why does he even bother?"_ Knuckles mumbled to himself. On Aleutian's left leg was another holster rig, but carried spare cells and magazines.

Aleutian disappeared for a moment but then reappeared from the room he had gone into with a small cherry stained wooden box in his hands. He walked over and sat the box down on the table by the excess wall of the hallway and opened it. Inside the case was a blue velvet lining with a bunch of empty spaces.

Minding where his brother was, Aleutian reached around and drew the holstered pistol from his shoulder. The leather creaked as the weapon was set free from its bonds. With a flick of his thumb at the bottom of the trigger guard, he ejected the magazine that held a metallic looking object at the top of it. He placed it in a square cut out on the far left side of the box. With a tight firm grip on the back of the slide, Aleutian jerked it back, letting fly the cartridge that was chambered in the breach. It sailed in the air for a brief moment until Aleutian snatched it in mid-flight before gravity took over. He then placed it in a small hole at the bottom right of the box.

Pushing down a small lever on the left side of the pistol, the internal spring pushed the slide forward with a sharp, mechanical slap. Aleutian then reached up towards the fat rounded barrel, and started, in Knuckles's disbelief, unscrewing it. After about six to seven revolutions, the fat extension came off, and it too, was placed in the box. Aleutian depressed a lever on the side of the pistol that made a sharp snapping noise as the hammer dropped into place, after which, he put the black squared frame pistol in the box and closed the cover.

"I've never seen cells that small before," pointed out Knuckles. Most cells that he had seen, and mostly used against him, were just a big solid battery. Not cylindrically shaped with a rounded nose.

"That's cause they aren't. These are called bullets. Very primitive by today's standards, but it gets the job done..."

"...And what job would that be?" Knuckles inquired flatly, his gaze sharpening as he waited for the response.

* * *

"...That boy has helped you more than you can possibly imagine in one sitting, Your Highness," stated Mathias, "Aleutian has done things that has saved a lot of lives in the long run." He and Sally were sitting in a study that had two cushy seats beside a wall of books. "If you think it was getting bad at one point in the fight against the first Robotnick, it could have been a real nightmare if it wasn't for me, him and our friends," concluded Mathias with a diminished smile.

Sally leaned forward in the red chair. "Like how, Sir Drake? And why didn't we ever get wind of this?"

"The more who knew, the more chances we could've been dead and worthless to the resistence. There is an old saying, 'three can keep a secret, if, two are dead.' If we weren't doing a cruise or something, we would lie low for a while, keeping our ears to the ground. When something big would come up, or word got around that Knothole could be in major jeopardy of something that you all couldn't handle in time, the call would go out, and whoever showed up, would go and do what was needed.

"Course we did have Robotnick knowing about us, since he helped with the project in its infancy," he countered. "But, your father ended up sending us out to the east coast, and only he knew where we went to. He wanted us closer to the Overlanders and to target their shipping lanes. Our operations damaged their moral pretty good for a time, but after a while, they stopped sending ships altogether. But, the real blow came from Robotnick. He turned that beautiful city into a dark, robotic, nightmare. We laid low for a couple of years before we started going back on patrol, and the first thing we did was sail right into his door step at old Mobotropolis Harbor and destroyed anything that looked like he might need. He wasn't very happy about that; plus knowing who could have done it didn't sit well with him either.

"For awhile, we would do these 'port raids' until Julian started placing mines around his ports. Then one day, I got some interesting information that was dropped at my door; literally. Some Mobians and Overlanders were willing to help and supply him. So, I changed the mission, and we went hunting for cargo ships again that would bring in bulk supplies to Robotnick. It might of been a dent in his overall quest for power, but some of the ships we sank were carrying devastating weapons that would have brought the defeat of you. But, we couldn't stop a good majority of them." What Mathias didn't say was was that he had a good idea who dropped that information to him. His two-toned eyes still sent shivers down the old Dingo's spine.

"How did you know about us?" The Princess asked, very inquisitive in her body language.

"Your unencrypted messages for a while. Then you started securing them, but by then, we knew what had to be done."

"And where does Aleutian fit in all this?" asked Sally with a curious look.

Mathias smiled before he began, interlacing his hands in front of him. "I plucked him from the sea one night on patrol. The boy nearly drowned, and then nearly died from hypothermia after being in the fifty degree water for almost ten minutes. We saw him through our scope and surfaced right below him just as his head went under."

Sally was listening intently when her gaze stopped at a picture of a very young, proud, Dingo; his blue tunic firmly pressed against his brown body. "Is that you Mathias?" she asked.

Mathias turned his head over his shoulder and realized what the young princess had spotted. He lowered his gaze at her. "No. That is my son Chester."

"Is he around?" she asked, hoping to get another fighter on her team. Her heart sank, especially with the selfish thought she had, when Mathias spoke again:

"He's at the bottom of the sea. He died on patrol; the same one when we picked up Aleutian." Mathias smiled instead of moping from the loss of his only son. "Chester was the one who picked Aleutian up from the deck and brought him inside. He saved him from a bad case of pneumonia that he got from being in the cold waters. My son even asked me," Mathias began with a chuckle, "if he could keep him, as if the young echidna was a pet. I told him someone was going to miss him, especially after I noticed the white mark that he was a Guardian.

"My son adored him though. Chester treated him as if Aleutian was his own. He'd show him how to work parts of the boat, then tell stories that put the young lad right to sleep.

"Then one night," Mathias said, his voice becoming stern as he paused for a breath, "one of our torpedo doors ended up jamming open. My son, the adventurous one, volunteered to fix it. So, we rigged him up so that he wouldn't get lost at sea. He went down and fixed the door; job well done. But, my second in command wanted to test it to make sure we could still could fire a 'torp.' We let loose the fish and one of the ropes from the rigging harness got snagged by the torpedo somehow, and yanked Chester off the deck of the boat. It was night, no moon, and we happened to be in the middle of a bad rainstorm. There was no way of getting him back," Mathias concluded in defeat, gazing hard at Chester's portrait. "And Aleutian saw the whole thing. That young boy, screamed at the top of his lungs for Chester, and it was his screams that alerted me to what had happened. I thought I was going to take it hard, but it was Aleutian who did."

Mathias wiped a tiny tear that trickled down his face. Partly from the memory of losing Chester, but also remembering the screams a young six year old seeing death for the first time. It was a very humbling experience for Mathias.

Sally gently placed her hand on Mathias's knee, trying to comfort him as best as she could. She now realized that there was more than what met the eye in this fight. And now she wanted to know what the real cost in sacrifice was in this war and the last. But something else hit her. "How did you keep Aleutian from my Father?"

"Easy, I didn't tell him," replied the Dingo with a light smirk. "I imagined the trouble that his kind could have gotten into if the Overlanders found out we had a Guardian with us, even if he was just a kid. So I hid him, and ended up raising him. Some of my crew's wives had a school set-up where we were, so, I sent him there for his education and kept him occupied as I did my duties. When Robotnick came around, he wanted to go and help us fight. Aleutian asked with a look of vengeance every time, so he went when I thought he was old enough."

Sally quickly changed the subject. "Where is your crew now?"

"Either gone or retired after the fall of the first Robotnick, some of them are as old as me but they don't have much life left in them. And some the others are dead." The thought sent shivers down the old Dingo's back, "Some were killed on patrol, like my son, and their sons replaced them on the Plunger. Others were roboticized, but the rest were killed on another battlefield," Mathias breathed out, lowering his eyes at Sally. "For right now, I don't want to scar you about that. For one: I wasn't there, and two: the better person to tell you is Aleutian. But, problem is, he may not want to even discuss it at all..."

* * *

"...My mid to late teens, I got trained to be something far worse than what Commander St. John is," explained Aleutian his arms crossed, leaning up against the small table.

"What do you mean by, 'worse'? That Skunk goes on missions that are secret," Knuckles replied as he pointed in the air through his mitts, "and border on illegal operations because of certain treaties." Knuckles still remembered that little drop Geoffrey's team made on the Island. It was a just cause, but they could have knocked instead of trying to parachute in unnoticed. Nothing escapes Haven. But in the end, that little operation during the Day of Fury did uncover Elias; the now acting King.

Aleutian leaned back further on the small table, that was the height of a bench. "I know of St. John, and I definitely know about his father Ian. Me and the Commander are trained, but it is the type of training and experience that is the differ."

"How so?" Knuckles slowly asked with a deep stare.

"St. John captures a lot of traitors to their kind and such. I don't know of anyone he has killed..."

"...He did shoot at Sonic," interrupted Knuckles with a smile.

Aleutian chuckled at the thought; knowing full well what that was all about. "Yea, but, Blackjack isn't the first Mobian I've killed," he finished, his stare turning cold as ice. "I got trained to be..."

"...A hit-man!?" Knuckles jumped.

Aleutian stuck his hand out to calm his brother, "That has been fairly recently for that, and I will tell you why, but not now," partly because Aleutian didn't want to expose part of his painfull past at the moment. "Anyways, I was trained to go hunt, and if it came down to it, help assassinate those who were playing you all from behind in the dark. I did capture some, and I'd send them to Knothole, via a third party."

"Why not just come out altogether?"

"Cause, I didn't want you to find out about me. Look," Aleutian began glancing back at the sunlight, "we will continue this later. I've got to grab some things and we need to get back in a hurry."

"One more thing first..."

"...What!"

"Why do you use guns. Why not channel the power from the Chaos..."

Aleutian starkly interrupted Knuckles with a fury. "'Cause I didn't complete my training to be a Guardian for some reason!" he partially lied, and with that, Aleutian marched down towards the doubled doors and turned to his left to enter the kitchen. "You can explore the house at your leisure!" he shouted back, but feeling he put his foot in his mouth.

Knuckles just stood his ground for a brief moment, his arms crossed and his eyes burning at what was being unveiled to him. He remembered about Athair going back on his duties as Guardian, but that was for a reason. Then of course there was Jordan, but he became Guardian after his brother died doing his duties.

"_But still, Dad had sent for him to help me."_ Knuckles quoted to himself, _"But what about now? Is he going to be a Guardian as well, or just sit on the sidelines like Jordan had for awhile? Was that Dad's plan altogether? If so, I can see why he left...I would have too."_

Aleutian stabbed his hands on the marbled counter. He had said too much, or did he say too little. _"This is getting out of control. And you are the one who likes to be in control...now a days."_ It was a different story over two years ago, but the pages have already turned; and for the worst for Aleutian.

Aleutian stripped off his shoulder harness and leg harnesses as well, leaving the last blaster loaded in its sheath as he slid them down on the counter. At this point, he didn't care about safety. He undid his vest and threw it on top of the scattered gear. And last but not least, he took off the ripped shirt and threw it at the bagless trash can to the right of the counter. Dust flew up from the impact. _"Yep, the dust just keeps piling up,"_ he scolded at himself, realizing harshly that he hasn't been up keeping the house like he did before.

He looked around the empty kitchen and his thoughts went to someplace else entirely. His mind triggered the lost smells that filtered out of the house long ago.

"_I miss her cooking. And I really miss her."_ The sudden frustration shot nerves to his right fist that sent it rushing hard to the surface of the counter top. The hard marble cracked when his gloveless red hand impacted it. But since Aleutian was trained to hit and stick to cause the fluid in one's body to ripple and cause more damage and pain to his enemy, the marble top fought back. All the energy from the force he used, rippled back up through his body and triggered something that shot pain straight to his brain.

It felt like someone was stabbing him with a tiny knife in his back. It stung, then seemed to pierce further inside him. Aleutian's left leg buckled from the sudden pain and nearly toppled him to the floor. Instead of shouting from the pain, he breathed in very deeply, making a low audible hiss through his teeth. His right hand caught him as his left hand went for his back. His eyes went wide when he felt two hard lumps protruding under the skin. _"No, I don't need this now!" _he pleaded to himself.

Aleutian's mind raced. The first thing he did was look behind him to make sure Knuckles wasn't looking. Satisfied that his brother had gone to explore the house, Aleutian went for a cabinet that had pain killers tucked away inside. He took one and swallowed it dryly. It went to work almost instantly. _"Wonders of 'modern' medicine." _

Wondering what Knuckles was doing after his senses came back, Aleutian touched the wall in front of him. One of the powers that came to him when he was five years old, ( and the only one he thought he had left,) was that he could touch a wall and see everything inside the building. It almost came to him clear as day, but with a small blurry tunnel around the image. But no matter, he could trace the walls and get better angles if he needed too.

He watched as his brother stared at some portraits in the hallway.

Knuckles was looking right at his family, the whole kit and caboodle. Lara-Le was holding him in her arms to the left. In the center was a very young Aleutian with a expressionless face, and Locke, standing by him as the proud Guardian of the Echidnas.

"Where did you get this?" Knuckles asked, yelling to Aleutian so that he could hear him. "I've never seen this family photo?"

"That's because that is the only one. I took it the day I left." Aleutian replied back, his voice echoing inside the house.

Aleutian pulled a duffle bag out of another cabinet that he hastily stuck in while on a bad trip of anger. He started packing it with medicine and other stuff that he knew they were going to need for the voyage. After cleaning out the kitchen, he walked back up the two steps and into the hallway where Knuckles was studying the photos on the wall.

Knuckles was trying to decipher the history in the pictures. The second one he saw was a bunch of Mobians; all walks of species, in a group photo by the sea. He stopped when he spotted his brother, but what made his eyebrows perk up was seeing another echidna right beside him...a female one at that! She was red as most Echidnas were, but she had thin wavy hair that traced down the right side of her head, almost becoming one with her dreads. Knuckles, scooted down the wall and stopped cold at the next photo. Aleutian was centered and actually smiling without any scars on his face. Right on top of his head was that same female echidna, but with a toothless smile that would light up the darkest of places on Mobius. Her arms were crossed and laid across Aleutians head, her chin barely touching her arms.

Knuckles turned to see Aleutian walking towards him. He finally saw his brother for once without any garb on, except he was still wearing his black cargo pants. Aleutian was lean in a very scary way. Knuckles swore he could at least count four of his ribs towards his abdomen. His arms were somewhat fairly built, but not like a Guardian's should be. And the scars. There wasn't many, but the ones that were there, hurt Knuckles more than they probably did Aleutian. Besides the ones on his face, Knuckles wondered at the long one that went across Aleutian's chest, that slashed at the bottom of his white mark of Guardian.

"What happened there?" he asked, pointing to the one on his chest. He knew that cutting up the crest like that probably got the offender a bad case of the hurts.

"I ran into some Swat Bots over a year ago. They were some of the old guard before Eggman did some house cleaning and some upgrades. They tried to get me to tell them where the Master Emerald was. Since I told them that I didn't know, the tortured me. My stubbed lock," he said, grabbing at it with his freehand, "they started there first."

Knuckles winced at the idea of the pain Aleutian must have felt. Then his brother continued:

"Then, they asked me about Knothole and I opened my big mouth. I told them that I 'knew' where it was but they were going to have to kill me 'cause I wasn't going to give it up. So out came the truth serum! As they waited for the effects to kick in, I picked the lock on the cuffs they had me in. They came back and started their questioning again. First thing I told them was how I was going to kill them. They didn't believe me until I showed them my handy work," Aleutian paused as he smiled. "During the fight, the one that had cut off my dread, extended his long dagger in his arm, and took a good swipe at me. My shirt got most of it, but not all," he said, tracing the scar across his chest. "I've kinda been careless lately," he admitted, mostly to himself.

Then Knuckles popped the big one. "Who's the girl?" he asked with an authoritative look.

Aleutian stopped cold, gazing into his brother's narrowed eyes as he searched for what he wanted to say. He lowered his eyes to floor, along with his body; opening his quivering mouth that was over taken by emotions...

"No one..."

* * *

"...The good news is, I don't think Eggman knows about the Plunger," finished the Dingo.

Sir Mathias Drake stood up, and shuffled his way back to the table where the map that Sally had brought in, laid on. His eyes met the markings with a curious note; Aleutian had been a little off in his plotting. He began to correct it with his own markings on the white and blue map, adjusting to where Angel Island was going to be in the next five days. _"Correction, four and a half days," _Drake observed as he looked at the clock. A full hour had already past and he was hoping the two brothers would be heading back by now.

Taking his compass and setting the calipers to five hundred meters on the key, he placed a point on the mark that laid south from the Island, that indicated where the bot was possibly patrolling at. Mathias started counting the hits that led to the second course change that Aleutian had plotted.

"Aleutian forgot to note the travel of the Floating Island. In about five days, his home travels further southeast and shortens the distance," Mathias said with a teaching tone of voice.

"The Echidnas' have renamed the Island to 'Angel Island' in remembrance of Angel-La," Sally corrected. Mathias just nodded. "So, why didn't you come back and helped us rebuild, especial when my father returned?"

"Because I'm too old now. I'm just to the point of being hardly any good. All things considered, I shouldn't be going on this voyage. But, this patrol is very vital and I need to keep an eye on things with the Plunger. I swear she is about as old as me the way she looks, and if she is like me, things wear down and break."

The old Dingo started doing the math on the map and came back with a very relieving answer. He doubled check his work before relaying it to Sally. "Its going to be about a four days journey to get to the area that this thing is patrolling around." Mathias then measured and calculated the distance between the Island and the enemy's area of operation. "And that gives us about a half a day to sink it before the Echidnas set sail. Course, that is if this thing stays true to that hundred mile buffer zone; which it probably won't." Of course Mathias had the calculations in kilometers thanks to the plans he had that were in metric at the time the Plunger was built.

"And today is day one I take it?" pointed out Sally.

"Yes it is, which means, I need to see the progress with Sonic."

Mathias marched out the door, Sally following behind his slim bushy tail, to see what the condition was on the off loading transport. He approached the blue hedgehog hoping to hear the news before he had to ask for it.

"All, we have left is the chow, Drake!" came Sonic, reading the mind of the Dingo.

"Excellent, now I need some of your crew to help me hook up some hoses and lines to my boat. I don't know her battery strength now, and we definitely need batteries to power the fridges."

Sally perked up. "Rotor can help you."

"Send him my way."

Rotor was introduced to Mathias, who liked right off the bat, and soon followed him down to the dock. Mathias produced a remote from his left shirt pocket and clicked it towards the hill on the mainland side that his house sat atop of. The grassy moss came alive with the sounds of hydraulics being pushed up. The ground elevated up, creating a cave entrance inside the slope with lights flickering on from the inside, exposing the dark and smelly underbelly of the supply room.

Rotor hesitantly followed Mathias inside, but not because of fear, but because of the harsh fumes that bellowed from the inside. The two stopped at three coiled up rolls of hoses; one was marked fuel with a sign on top. Next to it, another sign read water, and the last one beside it said voltage. That was the first one Mathias grabbed, and handed the end of it off to Rotor.

"Take this down to the boat, walk over the gangway and, standby at the rear section."

Rotor took the yellow, one and a half inch thick power cord, and started on his way. After dodging the obstacle course that Sonic and the rest had laid out for him, he strolled down the rickety gangway. It moaned when his heavy weight was applied to it.

He reached where he was ordered to and waited for Mathias, who soon came along with a crowbar and a wrench in each hand. Kneeling down, Mathias took the crow bar and placed in a small crack. Lifting hard, a hatch popped open, exposing seven little holes beneath the deck. Rotor looked at the end of the cord, and realizing it had a cover on it. He removed it, exposing seven prongs and with common sense taking over from there, he hooked the cable to the boat. It arched with a blue flash of light as it resisted on going in.

Mathias then lifted a large hatch from the chipped wooden deck a few meters from the rear of the bridge. He descended down it and quickly came up with a smile. "We have power. Now, lets fuel her up and get packing. Tell the rest to start bringing down the food supplies and load it into the 'fridges. They are located in the sleeping compartment forward of the bridge on the left side. They can't miss them."

Rotor nodded his head, and made his way, with extreme caution, off the boat.

* * *

The more pictures he gazed at, the more things somewhat became clearer, but also at the same time, came more questions. Aleutian was pictured in with three groups. He saw Mathias in two of them, and the last picture was with a totally different group of Mobians behind an airplane of some sort. The only thing that caught his eye in that one was Aleutian kneeling with the same girl beside him. Before studying the rest of the faces in the photograph, he moved over to another photo. It was a single shot of the same girl echidna, and she would probably would have made Julie-Su jealous as all get-out. Knuckles could tell it was his brother behind the lens...only a girl in love could produce a smile like that. She wasn't really showing her teeth at all. Almost smirking and smiling at the same time, a look Julie has given him once before. Her hair was pulled back by a very long blue scarf that ran at the edge of her forehead with the excess fabric falling down on a green, low-cut t-shirt. Her blue eyes with her lashes tailored up to her brows, (even in the photo,) was burning a hole through Knuckles. She was now on Knuckles's top need-to-know list as soon as his brother would open up...if.

Aleutian watched as his brother studied the pictures on the wall. He knew he would have to go through the history of them. A picture could say a thousand words, but those words were either speculations or questions at best.

Turning into the first room on the left of the hallway again, Aleutian walked by his cluttered desk to a bookshelf on the far right wall of the small, squared room. Only the sunlight light the room. From the shelf, he picked out a blue notebook and placed it in his duffel bag. From the desk, he snatched a set of pens and some other items before he exited the room. He brushed past Knuckles and went to an adjacent dark room down the hall. Aleutian came back out with a clean blue shirt in his hand and without his cargo pants on. He was about to put the shirt on when Knuckles looked at him coldly. "Covering your mark back up again?" he festered at his brother.

Aleutian's pride, what little he had left, sank when Knuckles made the statement. He stood there, starring at the shirt, wondering what he "was" hiding. For sure, it wasn't who he was suppose to be anymore. What he was doing now was protecting his people directly for once. But he wondered if it was the scars from his reckless past; a very recent past that he wanted to cover over. Or did he still want to hide his shame? Maybe it was both? Or maybe he was still trying to protect his brother from himself? But why? It was something he needed to think about. Good thing he was going to have two weeks to do it.

Aleutian dumped the shirt into the bag and pointed towards the den that signaled his brother to head off in that direction. He stopped one last time at the closet and grabbed a dark brown aviator jacket out from it. As he was working his arms into the sleeves, he heard the rear kitchen doors open along with his brother's voice. "What ah view!"

Aleutian smiled as he adjusted the collar of the jacket, scooping his dreads out from under the collar, and smoothing out the wrinkles. He knew full well what his brother was witnessing.

Knuckles was humbled at the view. A balcony that stretched the length of the house and about five meters in width, looked over a beach that was about two hundred feet down, and could be accessed by a walkway that snaked down from the house. The cliffs that overlooked the sea to the north glowed in the mid-morning orange sun; along with the back of the house.

Aleutian walked up behind Knuckles. His heart stopping when he heard the moaning of the old steel chains that hung a swing that swayed gently in the breeze; it sat behind him to the right of the door. He came real close to balling, reminiscing the times that him and his equal would be sitting on that swing, watching that very sunset. He then remembered when Mathias and the old crew of the plunger were over for an evening dinner that stretched long into the night. And she cooked the best meal before that cruise. And the moments after they left...those thought became to much for Aleutian.

He patted his brother on the shoulder, calling to him in a soft voice. "We need to go. Time is of the essence."

Knuckles nodded his head, sensing that whatever was troubling his brother, it was here. He turned to follow his brother out when he noticed the jacket. It had a painting of the an animal; its head was of a white hawk but the body of a large cat. Under it read "Freelanders" that curved in a large U, upwards. The bird/cat was flying upwards, it's claws opened; ready to attack.

"What's that on the back of your jacket, Aleutian?" Knuckles's asked when they got outside of the front door, shutting it behind him.

"That's a griffin, brother. It's a mythical creature from one of the books I've read. Part hawk, part big cat. I still have the books if you enjoy reading?"

"I love to read...that's if I get the chance."

Aleutian turned to his brother, looking over the top of the hover car. "That door that lead down towards some stairs?"

"Yea?" Knuckles's realized. It was the door that looked smaller than the rest.

"I have a huge library underground," _"Along with a bunch of other stuff," _Aleutian added to himself.

"Far out! I definitely want to see what you have."

"Hope you got a couple days for that. Anyways, lets hit the air stream."

As they crept off to a rolling start, Knuckles was admiring the view again. But as they cleared the side of the house, something caught his eye; a square stone of some sort that sat idly alone on the bluff. It almost looked like it belonged there, but in some sad way, it didn't. He brushed off the thought and feeling as he looked back over his shoulder at the fading house:

"_Definitely would like to go back."_

* * *

Thank you for reading thus far. I know it's kinda boring and all, but it has to be done in a way. But one more chapter until the meat and guts._  
_

* * *


	6. Putting to Sea

* * *

Okay, time to load up and go. For sake here, I really didn't want to use a German U-Boat because of what that regiem stood for at the time. But, I know this particullar sub the most and I wanted to use what I know. I tried my best to describe the feel of this as much as possible. It's going to be worth while when the rest of the book unfolds.

Disclaimer: I acknowledge the original characters are owned by SEGA and Archie Comics.

Enjoy **  
**

* * *

**Putting to Sea**

by Mauser:

When Knuckles and Aleutian parked the car back in Mathias's garage, the loading party was in full swing. Knuckles could see Julie-Su was "happily" working in the company of a certain bat, her face drowning in the loath of it. Sally was standing by Mathias, her arms crossed, but her mood, Knuckles could see, had lightened a great deal since they left. Aleutian led the way down to the dock, his duffel bag clasped in his red hand.

"How we doin'?" he asked as he marched passed Mathias, heel to toe.

"About to start fueling, most of the essentials are just about on. I'd say we be out of here in about two hours, maybe three. Speaking of time, your plotting was off."

"How so?" asked Aleutian, stopping to hear how rusty he was.

"The math was right on, plus measurements of the distances, but you forgot the drift of Angel Island. You were off about two hundred klicks..."

"...Angel Island? Do you mean..."

"...The name has gone back to times of old Aleutian. That is one of many things I'll have to tell you," explained Knuckles.

Aleutian smiled, still feeling the scar on his snout stretching, _"Wonderful! I wanted that done for how long?"_

"How are we on torpedoes Mathias?" Aleutian asked, his face changing back to the business of the task at hand.

"I haven't even looked at them yet."

Knuckles followed the two down inside the supply hold. The smell of the damp place, plus the heavy aroma of some sort of fuel that he hadn't smelled in years, hung in the mist of the labor. They rounded to the right of the large hall that lead to a doubled door room. Mathias opened both doors at the same time, exposing several large brown metal cylinders with fins. A set of twin counter-rotating propellers were placed inside the fins, and they had red nose covers that had little spinners at the front of the round covers.

"We only have seven of the regular battery powered torpedoes," Mathias pointed out with his hand, then turned his attention to the left wall, "and two of the plasmas."

Knuckles couldn't believe his now burning eyes from the think air and lack of sleep; and now from the heavily painted pink torpedoes. They looked liked the regular ones on the back wall, but with a longer fin section on both. Plus, four counter-rotating propellers that ran the length of the fins.

"What's the difference besides the paint?" he asked, almost laughing at the color.

"The ones in brown run on battery power, and they do about fifty to seventy miles per hour. Pretty quick eh?" stated Aleutian.

"If you say so," showing how much Knuckles knew of this.

"Well," Mathias continued for Aleutian, "those two in pink run on a mix of batteries and hydrogen gases. The batteries themselves is over heated and overworked, producing hydrogen gases. Those gases are trapped and ignited in a small engine, producing overwhelming power. The batteries do help in the propulsion as well, but the true power is the hydrogen motor."

"Instead of sixty or more, those things can do at least a hundred and fifty. But they leave a nice little trail behind them. The regular ones do too, but these babies can leave a trench in the water if they ride high enough below the surface," Aleutian said, with a sharp grin.

"So, the stupid question is, how do they track the target?" came Knuckles, wondering how they were going to sink something that they couldn't see.

Mathias spoke next; "For a surface target, we plot them to run into something. There is a bit of an art to it," Mathias explained, "The artistic part is putting one of these under the keel of a ship. The explosion from the torpedo produces a bulge of air that splits the keel in two after the ship comes back down. It causes maximum flooding," the Dingo finished with a twinkle in his eye.

"I think he means on how are we going to be hunting for this thing, Mathias,"chimed in Aleutian, turning the attention towards the real mission. "We have a sonar device on board. Two actually, one is Vector..."

"...that is if he can still hear after abusing those ears of his," Knuckles shrewdly pointed out.

Aleutian held up his hands to ease his brother. "The second is a pinging device. We hear it, we ping it, Espio, locks onto it, and we fire one of these babies after it."

"Definitely might have to use a Plasma just to make sure it can't maneuver out of the way. Even so if it dodges, it has acoustic homing capabilities, part of our design," Mathias stated with a smile.

"What about the other torpedoes?" Knuckles wondered out loud.

"They unfortunately don't," Mathias breathed out. "We'll have to fire a spread with those using line of sight. Since I haven't had the time or help, I haven't been able to make more and put the new guidance systems in," Mathias quickly stated, eyeing on Aleutian with sadness from the last bit.

"Well, lets get started," came Knuckles eagerly. He strolled over to the racks of torpedoes, wrapped his arms around one and tried to lift it. He couldn't even budge it with his strength. "Wow, what gives?"

"About one and a half tons, brother. Why I picked Mighty for this."

Mathias took Knuckles to help with a tractor and carts while Aleutian paged for Mighty. The red armadillo soon appeared and began to lift the torps as if they had the weight of a feather. He gently placed them on the carts per Mathias's orders. When he loaded four, one of which was one of the loud pink colored ones, (Mighty couldn't get over the color either,) Mathias rolled the tractor out to the Plunger with the three helpers grabbing a cart to ride on.

Reaching the dock, Aleutian jumped off and made his way on to the sub. He climbed down the hatch that was forward of the conning tower. Bypassing some of the cabins that were lit up already, he cautiously lumbered through the cramped passageway, moving towards the torpedo room. As he entered, Aleutian passed chains that were gracefully wobbling in the air over two rails that hung from the ceiling. He reached up to a red handle by the left rail and pulled it down. The early afternoon sun pierced the inside of the room that bore the teeth of the Plunger. Light made the four brass torpedo hatches glimmer. Yellow and red handles, valves, and hand wheels littered the grey walls.

Aleutian began opening the torpedo tubes when Mighty stuck his head through the long slender hatch. "How am I suppose to get down there with these bulky _hotdogs_?"

"I'll grab a ladder," Aleutian retorted as he opened the bottom right torpedo hatch. He retrieved one and secured it at the edge of the hatch way, and prayed the thing would hold Mighty and the fishes.

Mighty soon appeared with the first "hotdog." Aleutian helped count the steps as Mighty gently lowered himself and the "fish" inside. It scraped here and there as Mighty angled it through the hatch with Aleutian helping him guide it through. When the fins cleared the hatch, Mighty changed posture of the torpedo in his arms and moved it to the upper left tube that Aleutian pointed to first. As Mighty slid the red tipped "hotdog" inside, Aleutian painted the torpedo with a heavy coating of grease with a large camel-haired paint brush. This ensured a smooth exit from the tube when it was fired; plus, it coated the tube automatically when the next "hotdog" was loaded. Before Aleutian closed the hatch, he took a wire from the very tip of the counter-rotating blades and attached it to a little eye hole stud on the back of the brass hatch.

"What's that for?" asked Mighty.

"That arms the torpedo right after launch. The clip is attached to a wire that runs about six inches before it snaps off. If we set it for a magnetic pistol, it arms after four seconds of firing. It makes sure we don't blow ourselves up," Aleutian winked. Mighty just raised his head, and rolled his eyes in agreement, along with understanding. "Do hope you enjoy it here, cause this is your primary station," smiled Aleutian.

"What?"

"It takes about five of us to load one of these in about six minutes. It can take you thirty seconds. Welcome to your new home for awhile."

"But I know nothing about..."

"...Don't sweat it Mighty, you'll learn, and on top of that, I'll be here to help," Aleutian assured Mighty with a pat on his shoulder. "Now, lets load the rest."

They continued to load the last two battery powered torpedoes with ease. Then Mighty lowered the Plasma torpedo, and Aleutian cautioned for a slower pace which was no problem for Mighty as he remembered the "armed" part in the previous discussion. Aleutian helped guide the Plasma into its new home. As he did with the rest, he coated it with grease, but midway through loading it, he stopped the process. Aleutian unscrewed four bolts and lifted a panel off the side of the torp.' He then reached down inside the innards of the pink torpedo and turned the thing on at the flip of a switch. With the torpedo activated, Aleutian replaced the cover with the four screws, and continued with coating the fish as Mighty slid it inside the tube. Placing the same arming wire on the back of the hatch, Aleutian also attached a small cable to the rear of the torpedo before shutting the hatch, and locking it down with a handle.

"So what was so different about that one besides the color?" asked Mighty.

"I turned the batteries on and plugged into the sub. The sub will keep it charged, and keep the batteries warm."

"Oh," Mighty sighed.

"Go grab the last four of the 'hotdogs' as you call them, and meet me back here!"

"Roger," Mighty replied, almost throwing out a salute.

As Mighty climbed the ladder out, Aleutian went towards the cabin compartment, which was only a bulkhead away from the "business" end of the sub. Dr. Quack was shutting the last door to one of the freezers as Aleutian came by:

"That's it!" Dr. Quack said, finally observing Aleutians scars, including the one on his chest that lay beyond his jacket. "My word, I could have fixed those a world better. Who sewed you up?"

"Mathias, and an Overlander medic who made a house call." _"And that I almost killed,"_ Aleutian coldly added to himself.

"I can tell, Overlanders aren't notable for their medicine and their knowledge of anatomy of us Mobians. I'd like to have a once over at you when you have the chance."

Aleutian twitched his head at the thought before he replied. "I'm fine."

"Yeah right, look at you, _Echidna_...you're _wreck_."

"More ways than one..."

"Aleutian!" came Mathias from the hatch that was a couple of paces back from where the two were standing, "We'll be pumping the fuel in soon. Check the fuel valves and such."

"Will do." Aleutian turned back towards the doc. "Duty calls," he smiled before as he turned away and walked towards the back of the sub. He checked a couple of gauges on his way through, one was for the amp load of the batteries which where almost fully charge, and the other was the hydrogen detector. That gauge showed the hydrogen levels that the batteries were giving off. Too much, plus a spark and the Plunger would be talking with Davy Jones in a matter of seconds.

Aleutian cleared the main control room and ducked under the hatchway into the rear quarters that mostly housed the spare parts, weapons, ammunition for said weapons, and tools. Clearing that room, he ducked under another hatchway into the engine room. Two giant V-12 engines lined the walls, their yellow paint overshadowed by the black film of oil and grease from previous patrols. Aleutian did his checks and made his way back to the torpedo room. As he did, he could hear the fuel being pumped into the tanks that were spread throughout the sub.

Mighty returned with the last four hotdogs ready to be gently placed inside. Aleutian again, helped, but mostly this time overseeing the process. All Mighty had to do was load them on four of the eight torpedo racks that lined the walls that were cushioned by nets on the undersides. When every torpedo was loaded, Aleutian secured them with four belts that were anchored on the sides of the walls. He then told Mighty to grab the last fish back at the supply room and to meet him at the rear of the boat. Mighty looked at him if he was off his noggin:

"Okay, so you want me to load the last one where?"

"We have a tube in the back Mighty!" Aleutian forced out. All the small questions and statements were pushing his very small limits.

When Mighty exited from the torpedo access hatch, Aleutian closed it and locked the handle back in place. He then grabbed the ladder and again, and made his way towards the back of the boat. Passing the last four compartments as before, he entered the last two at the rear the sub. The electric motor room laid aft of the engine room. Two 1300 horse power electric motors laid under his feet with metal shafts extending from the rears of them that disappeared through the rear bulkhead. The two round motors were almost the length of the compartment with wires sticking out from the ends of them. They still had their original silver paint job on them. Above them, along the walls of the hull, were two racks of batteries that helped power the motors.

Past the bulkhead was the rear torpedo compartment with a single brass hatch at the far rear. Flipping the lever, the aft torpedo access hatch snapped open above Aleutian's head. With it came Mighty with the last Plasma torpedo. It was soon sealed inside the dark, greasy smelly tube moments later.

* * *

Two and a half hours passed and the fueling was just about complete. The fresh water tanks were fully filled (after being flushed from the two years of doing nothing,) and the last of the crucial supplies were placed inside. Mathias was on the bank, smiling at the progress that was being made on such short noticed, when Aleutian came up beside him.

"We're about ready to put to sea," he announced with a tired voice.

Mathias just faintly shook his head. "Do you think they will need to be taught 'military bearing?' If we are to really do this with them for the..."

Aleutian kindly cut him off gently. "...Come on Mathias. They have been fighting together for how many years? I think with most of them knowing what we are about to do, and how we're going to do it...I don't think we need to pressure them with that right now. We'll have to teach them some new things, but they are young and very disciplined, except maybe for Sonic," Aleutian chuckled, "but other than that Mathias, no. If something breaks down in team work, I'll be on it fast."

"What's got you like this, boy?" Mathias smiled, his arms crossed over his tropical shirt.

Aleutian sighed, gathering his careful thoughts:

"My people, Mathias; for once I'm thinking about my people. Angel Island is under the control of a very oppressive man, and the thought of many dying from trying to get away from him...I don't know Mathias..."

"...Sounds like you've finally come to your senses after all these years. Look, I know I've been a like a father to you Aleutian, but it is time you go back to your family, help them directly for once instead of indirect."

"But it worked last time..."

"...It isn't going to work this time. All of our comrades and friends are either dead, robotoized, or too old to fight. Take yours truly here...'Guardian,'" Mathias emphasized, "this will probably be my last cruise, and I don't think you'll be able to get another crew to help you. We got lucky the first time with the supplies and the weapons, but without the help like we had last time, it isn't going to be as effective."

Aleutian stared long into the ground. "I wish I hadn't gone. I wish I hadn't listened to you for once and hadn't gone," he breathed out softly. Mathias knew all too well what he was talking about.

"I know you do...but what happened then was instrumental to them," Mathias said, pointing to the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix. "You gave them the time and room to help defeat Julian..."

"...we, Mathias."

The Dingo breathed in at the thought of losing so many of his comrades in a battle he never fought. "I'm sorry Aleutian...your right. So, when are you going to tell them?"

Aleutian snapped his head up to his very dear friend. "I'm not," he flatly replied. "You think I want them to know what happened out there? It's history that I don't want them to feel guilty about. From the looks of things, they don't need to know how many lives have been really sacrificed in this whole ordeal."

"But Aleutian...you wear that history on your face," Mathias pointed out calmly, "at least tell your brother for Aurora's sake. Or is the past still binding your feelings?"

Aleutian didn't say a word, he just trudged off, his hands fisting with his frustrations. Mathias shook his head in not understanding him._ "He came so close...so long ago."_

Remembering the tradition that needed to be fulfilled before they parted Mobius Prime, Mathias started his way back to his house. There was a scroll he needed to grab.

As he proudly marched his way along, Sally spotted him and joined him back at the house. "Looks like I'm about done here. I need to get back and tell my folks and my brother of what is going..."

"...Elias? The young prince is alive!?" Mathias bursted out, almost coming out of his fur when he heard the young King's name. That too was soon going to make him jump out of his skin.

"He is now acting King, sir."

Mathias just smiled hard before it faded. "And what of my old friend...your father?"

"He is doing better. We almost lost him not to long ago, but he is doing better. Mother is with him most of the time, getting him well."

"I must find the strength to see him. I am sure he'd perk up seeing my old dogged face."

Sally nodded her head in agreement. Right now, anything would help.

As Sally and Mathias were playing more catch up, Aleutian was setting quarters up for the gang. He had them lolly gaged around him, just forward of the command room, and a bulkhead away from Mathias's bunk; along with the radio and sonar stations. They were overlooking four, somewhat cramped rooms with only two bunks in each that lined the rounded walls, along with a small table in each room that had two chairs underneath.

"Okay, Knuckles, you and Julie-Su are here," Aleutian instructed, pointing at the first cabin. He then walked down to the next one and extended his arm. "Sonic, you and Tails; since you two seem to be buds."

"Got that right!" Sonic gassed back, giving his orange and brown friend a hard nuggy on the head. "Hear that Tails, we'll be up-chucking together."

The room erupted with a small chuckle. "Okay...okay," Aleutian said, smiling at Sonic's comment, "Rogue, you are in here with me. Espio, you and Vector are in the last one. Mighty, there are a bunch of bunks for..."

"Hold it bro," came Vector, "we Chaotix stick together. Know what I mean."

"Fine, have it your way. You three get to crash in the torpedo room," Aleutian grumbled, "Doc, you and Rotor get the last room. Now, grab your stuff, get it below, and meet back topside on the bridge."

They all started out in the organized mob that they were. As they departed, Rogue's nose smelled the heavy fumes that assaulted her senses. "What's with the smell?"

"That's the diesel," Aleutian grudgingly replied. "You'll get used to it after awhile."

"You mean we're contributing to Ro-butt-nick's pollution?" snapped Sonic from the aluminum ladder.

"Unfortunately," slowly replied Aleutian unevenly. "I didn't design her so don't go complain to me about it."

Aleutian had already placed his bag on his bunk; so he waited for the rest of the gang to show back up. One by one they tossed what little gear they had brought with them down the hatch, and then they placed it in their cabins. Mathias then appeared with his seabag in tow. He passed it down to Aleutian, who knew where it went. Just inside the first hatchway going towards the front from the control room, were two little shacks that were separated by a metal wall that only ran about three feet towards the center. The first room by the hatch to the command room, housed the radar, the radio, and an odd looking record player. The one behind it had a set of earphones and a wheel. The wheel was positioned right in front a needle that had the numbers of a compass written on to it in a circle. To the left of the shacks, was Mathias' bunk. Behind the sonar cabin laid the galley where Doctor Quack would be spending most of his time in all this. Further down to the next hatch was the cabins for the new residents of the Plunger. To the left of the cabins was the dinning table and beside that to the right were the two large freezers.

When Aleutian got topside, Mathias was there on the bridge with a white scroll in his hand. The newly formed crew of the Plunger were standing at the rear of the bridge around the anti-hoverbot cannon. Aleutian took his position by Mathias, which the Dingo soon unrolled the scroll, and eyed it through his glasses. Even the new ones that Aleutian had given him over a year ago were starting to loose their use. With a grimace from his blurred vision, he handed the yellow stained roll to Aleutian.

"I think it is best your read it now," he said.

"Why..." Aleutian was about to protest that Mathias was the captain, but his old mentor stopped him:

"It's your patrol; your mission. You came to your senses now, and so you uphold the tradition this time."

Aleutian nodded, almost in a mournful way as he took the stroll in his hands.

Sally watched from the dock as her friends gathered around to hear what the scarred echidna was about to read. She could see Mathias eyeing her with a smile.

"May our loved ones not be afraid," Aleutian began, "may our friends not be scared; for we are about to go blindly into Aurora's great ocean to fight. May she not punish us for the deeds we are seeking to do. For if Aurora poses the love that she has given us to experience in our solitary lives, may she know that we are fighting to keep it free. And may she forgive us for breaking the peace of the seas."

Mathias stood at attention when Aleutian closed the scroll. "May Aurora grant us fair winds and calm seas."

The gathered fighters nodded their heads at the words.

"Lets get going," said Aleutian bluntly, giving Mathias the rolled up scroll.

"Right, Rotor," Mathias began, "down to your station. Get the motors running and be ready for my orders. Aleutian, be a good lad and help."

"I plan too," the echidna replied as he began to crawl under the rails of the pedestals.

Aleutian and Rotor made their way towards the engine room hatch. Before they climbed down, Aleutian made sure all the service hatches from the fueling and recharging stations were secured. Down inside the belly of the sub, Aleutian worked his way to one of the engines. He immediately flipped on some switches that lay on the wall to the rear of the big behemoth. Rotor started doing the same, copying Aleutian and seeing that some of the obvious controls were marked. The panels began to light up.

"Okay, there should be a button that says 'glow plugs,'" explained Aleutian.

"Yea, I saw it and already activated it. It's been a while since I've operated an engine like this."

"Well, know this. This isn't your average run of the mill Robotnick Diesel. These are a lot cleaner, and produce more power. Plus, we can practically circle the globe with these on a full tank.

"Okay, there is a dipstick painted in red just at your feet. See it.?" Aleutian continued, switching the subject.

"Yeah!"

"Pull and check it."

Rotor yanked the solid red ring, exposing a long, slender rod. He observed the black oil was marked at the "full" line.

"How old is this stuff? It looks like you haven't changed the oil in..."

"...Two years, yes I know Rotor, but we don't have time do an oil change right now. As long as it doesn't say 'add,' we're okay."

"Gotcha," Rotor said as he replaced the stick and waited for what Aleutian was going to want next.

"Okay, the glow plugs are about warmed up, so; do you see a handle over your head on top of the engine?"

"Yes."

Aleutian maneuvered over to the long handle on his side of the engine room. "Give three hard tugs with it."

Aleutian did as he said, giving Rotor the idea. This primed the engines for the main start...if they were going to start. He then turned around and reached up behind him for a crank handle, and started rotating it counter-clockwise. Seeing what Aleutian was doing, Rotor followed the ceiling to a crank that looked about the same. He too, turned it.

"What's this for?" he asked.

"Opens the exhaust vents and the main induction vents for the engines. No sense in dying from the lack of clean air."

"Yeah," Rotor said with a very understanding tone.

Aleutian turned back around and faced his yellow beast. He grabbed two levers that were poking out from the front of the engine with both hands. He lowered the left one down first, producing a high mechanical sound that signaled the cylinders were turning. Lowering the right lever towards the deck, the twelve cylindered engine came alive. With a smile on hearing the roar of the diesel motor starting to settle in its mechanical rhythm, Rotor started his.

Mathias and the rest of the crew were still topside when the Plunger awoke from its over two year sleep. What he didn't like from the start up was a black cloud of smoke coming from the rear vents. It wasn't uncommon to see it from, of all things, a diesel engine, but the smoke kept bellowing out, indicating something was wrong.

"Okay, Tails is it?" he asked the twin tailed fox.

"Yes Mathias."

Mathias nodded at getting the name right. "Go down below and man the helm."

Miles stared at him, not knowing what a helm even was, much less where it was. Mathias saw the look and motioned Tails to have patience. He turned, facing the front of the boat, and depressed a button on the side of the metal housing of the bridge. An instrument panel unfolded from its water tight shelter. On it were gauges that showed the battery power, heading, speed, and also a radar screen that was sandwiched in between the mess. Mathias then pulled a radio microphone from it and pressed the talk button. "Aleutian, need you at the command room. Show our friend the helm and other things of interest please."

"On the way," Aleutian confirmed, depressing the intercom switch on the radio on the wall beside the left engine. "Wait here, and don't touch a thing till I get back," he said to Rotor.

Rotor gave him a thumbs up as Aleutian made his way to the front of the boat.

Mathias brought out his remote clicker again and pressed one of the many buttons on the black device. Sounds of cables echoed across the tiny bay as the gangway slowly retracted from its point on the Plunger. He then operated another button. Clamps that lay under the sub detached and lowered away from the hull. With the added weight from the torpedoes, fuel, water, and other essentials; the Plunder sank a little, causing it's occupants to brace themselves...physically and emotionally.

Aleutian found his way to the command room where Tails was a little nervous about what he was asked to do. Aleutian pointed to a grey wheel, the outer rim supported by a series of large metal spokes, that was to the left of two other wheels of the same fashion.

"Okay, have a seat and listen up. Right and left are the same, so this shouldn't be to bad," Aleutian began. He pointed at two gauges at the center of Tail's view. "The top one is the heading. The bottom one shows the degree of the rudder. Sometimes we may ask for a five degree left rudder or a ten degree right rudder. Just turn the wheel to where the needle points at the number. Plain and simple."

"Easy enough, Aleutian."

"Good, Mathias is going to give you directions, just follow them."

"Okedokee," Tails confirmed, Aleutian just smiling at the easiness of telling him what to do.

"Aleutian," shouted Mathias though the hatch above.

"Yes Mathias."

"Time to turn the screws."

Aleutian hurried back to Rotor. Grabbing the walrus' leather bomber jacket, he led him to the next room. Along the left side of the room, under the shelf of batteries on that side, were two levers. They had a series of markings down both sides of them.

"Okay, these control the electric motors," explained Aleutian quickly. "Right now they are in the middle, showing that they are at all stop, just like the writing says. If you go up, we increase speed. If you go down past the stop points, the motors will start reversing. There are no clicks to the settings so you have to aline the levers to the uppermost line of the requested speed. You do have a gauge for speed," Aleutian shouted over the idling engines, pointing to the speedometer above the motor controls, "so if we ask for a certain speed, just operate the handles as if they were throttles. The right lever is for the right motor, left for left. The motors are at the bottom your feet," Aleutian finished, pointing down at the metal graded floor. Rotor could see the giant motors awaiting to be activated along with the two heavily chromed shafts that extended out from them that disappeared into the rear bulkhead.

Aleutian patted Rotor on the back and made his way back to Tails. Tails had seated himself comfortably on a backless, cushioned seat; awaiting his instructions. Aleutian confirmed to Mathias that Rotor was at the ready back at the engine room. He then turned to the far right wall where a long table with two giant screens laid flat atop of them. He pushed two red buttons that powered up the line of computers; one was for plotting the course, the other was the targeting computer. Aleutian then unrolled the map that Mathias had sent down to him with Tails. Looking over the corrected plots, Aleutian entered them into the system, then grabbed the mike to the radio.

"We're set."

"Very well. Rotor...power to both motors at one--third!" replied Mathias through the radio, giving the first order with joy.

The Walrus moved his hands over the levers and pushed them through to the line that said "one third." The two shafts began to slowly counter-rotate, turning under his feet with the grinding of the electric motors in the mist of the reaving diesel engines, that had increased their power to produce the added current needed to drive the two propellers. The "screws" slowly turned, producing air bubbles when the blades would grab light scopes of air from the surface. Behind them was the twin rudder of the boat. To the sides of them, the diving planes.

With the sudden rush of water from the rear of the boat, Sonic, and the rest that were still on the bridge, watched as they slowly pulled away from the dock. Sally was still on the bank, sitting, and wondering what their journey was going to do for them, and for the fight. She closed her eyes and whispered under her breath, praying that they would all come back in one piece.

With the Plunger slowly picking up speed, the water began making the elegant wakes as the submarine pushed through the glassy calm waters. The added breeze started flowing through Mathias's fur, sending shivers through his body of the joy of going back to sea. Not only for quite possibly one last patrol, but to serve the Kingdom of Acorn once again.

"Tails, rudder left at five degrees," he ordered.

Tails slowly turned the wheel, trying to get the feel of the controls, and lined the needle to the five mark. He could feel the boat gradually turn as he adjusted the helm.

Mathias eyed over the bow and saw his mark that led out towards the open ocean. "Okay, straighten her up. Aleutian, be ready to set the autopilot when we clear the banks."

"Roger," Aleutian confirmed, hovering over the computerized map, his hand on the button to make the sub guide itself. He didn't have to wait long when the Plunger passed the shallow banks of the makeshift harbor.

"Okay, plot our course and set the autopilot."

With the course already plotted, Aleutian just pressed the button. "Okay Tails, you're done for now. You can go topside and watch Mobius Prime disappear over the horizon." With that, Tails slowly made his way up the ladder to the bridge.

"Rotor, all ahead standard," came Mathias. He soon felt the diesels increase their rpms through the wooden deck as Rotor slide the throttles up to the next mark. The black smoke became real onymous as the engines revved up higher.

Aleutian made his way up the ladder to the bridge as well. He looked out at first towards the open ocean before turning his attention back towards the rear, where everyone else was looking. He could see Sally waving as they departed, the rest of the crew returning the gesture...except him. Aleutian was more attuned to his brother, who had his right arm over Julie-Su's shoulder as they waved to Sally. He could see himself from two years ago in his brother at that moment.

The Plunger made it's turn from the automated course and began it's long journey to the northeast. Sally watched as the slender bridge of the sub disappeared before she made her way back to her ship, and then back home for a long nap before going her brother, Elias and the rest of Knothole about what she had discovered; hidden after so many years.

* * *

They were forty miles out when Aleutian slid down the ladder from the conning tower. The Plunger's new residents were standing in the command room with Mathias. Sonic, Tails, and Espio were sitting in the only three seats of the compartment, the rest were standing; awaiting instructions.

"Okay," Mathias began, "for those of you that haven't been informed, this is the Plunger. This boat is older than most of you, and she has seen her fair share of action. So be gentle with her in certain areas. We are undertaking a mission that is relatively a new thing for me and the Plunger...we are hunting a hunter. This hunter is submersed which makes it even more dangerous."

"We've found that out already, thank you," pointed out Julie-Su. Others from that particular flight nodding in agreement.

"Well, here is something else. Eggman may have better detection gear than us; plus, possibly better weapons. The nice thing is, he probably doesn't know this thing exists. But we still need to be on our toes. You in particular Vector. When we get to our hunting grounds, you are going to be listening to the sea for this thing."

The green crocodile smirked at the thought. "So what am I listening for?" he asked with his deep voice.

"Anything that doesn't sound normal," Aleutian blurted out flatly, his arms crossed, trying to keep awake, "if you hear something under those head phones, let me or Mathias know right away."

Mathias nodded at Aleutian's statement. "Right. You don't have the experience that me or Aleutian has, so, don't be afraid to speak up. Now, it is time we all took a tour of the sub. We'll start in the torpedo room first," stated Mathias, pointing the way forward.

Slowly, the tired bunch followed Mathias through the three compartments to where Mighty was going to be in charge of. Following rules laid down by the old Dingo many moons ago, everyone had to be trained to know a good portion of operating everything on board the Plunger.

"This is the business end. We only have eight 'fishes' loaded, four in the tubes, four in reserve, with a Plasma in tube four," Mathias pointed out at the lower right tube, then started pointing at the upper left, moving over then down to the rest of the torpedoes as he numbered them to the sleepy bunch.

"Up here by the side of every tube is a long handle," he began, pointing at the upper right of tube one. They could see that the handle had been used many times as the red paint had mostly been chipped off; leaving the wood grain to the elements. The handle was attached to a long bar that disappeared through the front of the sub; twisty grooved cut deep into the long, slender steel shaft.

"Turn these counter-clockwise to open the tube doors. They're kinda rough so put your weight into it. Then, make sure you have compressed air going into the tubes. The gauge on the left wall shows the pressure. It should always be at max. The levers to send the air in are right above your heads," he said, pointing to two red handles that were in the closed position. "Open to fire, close to reload. If you fire a torp without the compressed air pushing it out of the tubes, we'll have a 'hot run' and I won't be happy. A 'hot run' could blow up and sink the boat faster than you can pray."

"What's a 'hot run,'" asked Sonic, raising his hand like a schoolboy.

"It's when a fish is stuck in the tube after she has been fired," Mathias replied hastily. "Now, when the command is given to fire, press the red levers on the bottom side of the torpedo hatches. If a spread is given, allow a second between the shots. Now lets move on to the radar and sonar parts of the boat."

Again, the gang followed Mathias. As they maneuvered down the skinny aisle of the sub, Mighty was walking behind Aleutian with a lingering question. "Am I gonna have help back there?"

"Like I said before, yes!" Aleutian replied as a matter of fact, "if anyone is going to be working hard on this patrol, its going to be me, for once. I'll be back there to make sure everything is going smoothly. I'll even help you load," Aleutian finished, jabbing the Armadillo in the arm.

"Okay Vector, this will be your listening post when we are submerged," Mathias continued as they entered the compartment. " This is called a hydrophone. It's like a big microphone for the water. You just turn the wheel and watch your heading on the gauge. If you hear something, yell out the contact and the number that the needle is pointing at, and I'll be there to see what you've found. The contact you pick up will be shown on the targeting computer. You just point and listen, the computer will do the rest. Now, the device to your right is the sonar. It always stays on passive unless I instruct you to go active.

"Okay, now on to the command room," Mathias ordered.

Mathias stopped at the bulk head upon entering the command compartment through the small hole, "Okay, this is the brains of the outfit," he said, facing the rear of the boat as he pointed to the right at the two computer tables, "navigation and fire controls. The time that this boat was originally used, the plotting and steering used to be all done by hand. Now we just plot and trace our course on the G.P.S.. If we aren't under any direct threat, it's on autopilot relieving most of the work for you all.

"The targeting computer is a little different," Mathias explained, picking up a small black, inkless pen and tapping the screen with it, "if either we get a radar contact or sonar contact, the contact will register here in living color. Speed, depth, and heading will all come up. You just touch the target and the computer will do the rest by automatically setting the torpedoes to the solution. The only thing we have to decide is the angle of the spread, depth, and whether the trigger is impact or magnetic detonation. Okay, moving on," Mathias quickly said, showing that he had the most sleep than anyone else.

Mathias pointed to four huge red levers over his head. "These flood the ballast tanks with water. When we dive these will be pulled downwards to the floor. When the order is given to level out, we close them. On each bulk head at either end are two wheels, turn those to release the air to flood the tanks. As long as the air pressure in the ballast tanks is greater than the water, we won't sink. When we release that pressure, water shoots up from a cavity at the center of the keel, and floods a ballast tank on bottom, just above the keel. The red levers also floods the saddle tanks to either side of us. Those are the bulges that you see on the side of the boat.

"Next are the diving planes. They are the two wheels to the left of the helm," Mathias pointed out. "When we dive, two of you will be on those. Right is down, left is up. One of us will be telling you which way to turn, but keep in mind, you might be going in opposite directions than the person beside you."

Mathias finished the tour through the engine rooms and the stern torpedo room. Sonic, Tails, and everyone else were at awe of the crudeness, plus, the technology that was put into the sub.

Aleutian then stepped forward, "Okay, we are going to do watch. Sonic, you and Rotor go up top on the bridge with a pair of binoculars and watch for anything on the horizon. This will make sure that no one is sneaking up on us, and it also gives you two a bit of fresh air. In two hours, I'll pick two more and rotate you two out. We do have radar and it is operational, but, its good practice. So..."

A loud, sudden moan of metal rubbing against itself filled the heavy diesel air. It quickly died along with the right engine.

"Oookkkaaaayyyy," Aleutian frustratedly muttered. "Rotor to the engine room, Tails, up top with Sonic."

Aleutian followed the walrus to the rear when they were confronted by a light cloud of white smoke that hung low in the compartment. Mathias soon joined them. "I noticed black smoke coming from the rear exhaust vents. I thought one wasn't running well."

Aleutian tried to start the engine but it only pulled through without cranking over. He soon found himself in the storage compartment, grabbing two boxes of tools. From one of the boxes, he laid his hands on a volt meter. He too had seen the black smoke and that led him to think it was electrical. Testing some of the wires that fed to the spark plugs all the while Rotor pulled the starter lever down, Aleutian found that electric current wasn't going to where it needed to be...the spark plugs.

"Distributor cap."

"You sure?" asked Rotor

"Yeah! One of the things that need to be replaced from the last patrol." Aleutian grunted as he got up from the slick, oily floor.

Aleutian went back to the supply room and retrieved a box from one of the metal cabinets. He in turned, pulled out a blue plastic bowl that was rounded at the top with twelve metal prongs that ran around the bowl, and one on top of it in the center. Grabbing the proper tools for the job, Aleutian and Rotor got right to work. With one of the engines out, it was going to slow them down about five knots.

Above deck, Sonic and Tails were somewhat enjoying the fresh air. For Sonic though, everything was going too slow. "Can't believe I tagged along for this."

"Too late now to turn back. Besides Sonic, what we're doing is of great importance."

"For who, lil' buddy? Aleutian?" fired back Sonic as he gazed through his binoculars.

"For Knuckles. Look, we're going after Eggman, hopefully protecting those who want get away from the war who don't belong in it, and above all; for Knuckles to bond with his brother. So far, you and I haven't had any friction when we reunited with our families...Knuckles has, and he needs this right now."

Sonic thought hard over Tails's words. "You're right...besides, this is a better idea then me takin' a swim."

* * *

Three hours past when Aleutian and Rotor got the engine back online. As Sonic and Tails were relived by Espio and Rogue, they didn't notice the black smoke when the motor roared back to life. Rogue noticed on the panel that the Plunger was doing a steady sixteen knots at "all ahead full." Her heart skipped a beat when Aleutian appeared on the bridge, the early evening sun tracing a shadow over the two cuts across the back of his right eye. She still feared him, but with all the black garb off, and with him only wearing his boots and a jacket; he looked less threatening.

"Everything all right up here?" the tired echidna asked.

Espy just gave him a thumbs up, but Rogue wanted conversation. "Doin' fine, hunk."

Aleutian just looked at her as if she was from another planet. "Okay, yall' be done in a couple of hours, so don't fall asleep."

Aleutian then disappeared through the hatch and went on to check on the others.

"Rogue, don't get to close to him," came Espio in a cautious voice still looking out to sea.

"Why not, he looks free to me."

The chameleon just shook his head. "He maybe be physically, but he doesn't look it emotionally. Don't get close, don't toy with him, and definitely don't try him. He needs a wide berth right now from the way he acts."

* * *

The sun soon fell over the western horizon. Rotor and Vector were up top enjoying the setting sun and then watching the moon appear from the east. Dinner was served, but with only cold cuts and fruit that had mostly been passed out to those who were still awake to eat. Mathias let most of the crew go ahead and sleep, but Tails had volunteered to take the last two hours of watch with Knuckles.

Aleutian passed Mathias who was at the dinning table working on a map. He joined the him as he slide onto the wooden bench, his back stinging from the wound that had reared it's ugly head back on land. "So how much did that little break down cost us?"

"About twenty kilometers. So far, we are a little behind. With the hours we traveled so far, we've only gone about a hundred and fifty kilometers. If we stay on the surface we will get to the patrol area within ten to twelve hours before your people set sail," Mathias replied evenly, taking his glasses off and leaning back on the bench. "How are they...our new crew that is?"

Aleutian interlaced his fingers while gathering his drowsy thoughts. "Mostly sleeping now. We need to run some drills tomorrow. I think the tour went out the window with the little sleep they've been on."

Mathias nodded his head. "I want to thank you Aleutian for doing this, and bringing them along..."

"...It was all I could get..."

"I know, but bringing those who I've sworn allegiance to long ago has put what little fight I had back in me."

Aleutian just stared at the walls, nodding in and out of sleep before he jumped back on his aching feet. "I need to do some things. You sure we're going to be okay without someone awake?"

"Yes. Don't worry, the alarm on the radar can still wake the dead."

Aleutian nodded and slowly walked towards the rear of the sub. He checked the time and noticed that Knuckles was due for watch rather soon, so he walked towards his cabin instead. Slowly peering through the open curtained room, Aleutian saw his brother lying with Julie-Su on the bottom bunk, she was sleeping while Knuckles was awake, gently rubbing her shoulder. Knuckles didn't realize until now what his brother meant to him...he saved the one he loved.

Aleutian softly knocked on the steel wall. "Time for watch Knuckles."

Knuckles looked up at him, his eyes even with happiness. "I know."

Aleutian was about to turn when Knuckles gently called out to him. "Aleutian,"

"Yes."

"Thank you," Knuckles softly said.

The scarred echidna nodded at his brother, slowly slipping away, trying hard not to break down.

Aleutian pulled the curtains back to his cabin, revealing Rogue sleeping on the top bunk, peacefully. Aleutian calmly went to the table that was in the center of the room. Pulling the chair out from under it, he positioned himself with his back against the aft wall. With his tired hands, he pulled out the blue notebook along with a pen that he had packed away, and opened the book to the next blank page. The pen stained the white paper with the black ink has he began to transcribe his thoughts down:

"_Dear Journal,_

_I found my brother yesterday...or should I say, he found me. One thing led to another and he dragged me back home. So, I guess I kept her promise in a way. Now I'm at sea again with Mathias and some of the Freedom Fighters and my brother. He seems to be tight friends with them which is great. He is also in love and in a way, I am excited for him. But every time I see him with Julie-Su, it tears me up. I miss her Journal, I truly miss h..."_

Aleutian dropped his pen, his senses on high alert when he felt someone else, besides him and the female bat, in the room. He looked around but didn't see anything, but he knew someone was...

Aleutian felt the table with his hand. He then slowly stood up and shuffled his feet towards the rear wall and faced it; starring at nothing:

"Hey Espio?"

"How di..."

At mid sentence, Aleutian reached up with his left hand and with his index finger extended, he hooked it inside Espio's mouth, snagging his right cheek. With a hard shove, he threw Espio out of his room, the chameleon hitting his horned head hard on the metal doors of the freezer. The hard impact sounded like some one crashing cymbals in a marching, and it made Espio loose concentration as he quickly changed back to his normal self. Rubbing his head, he looked up to an echidna with an unstoppable fury in his eyes. _"Opps!"_

"You do that again, and I will personally shoot you out of a torpedo tube myself...YOU UNDERSTAND ME!" yelled Aleutian at the top of his lungs. His angered face intensified with the scars he wore, making Espio feel no larger than an atom. All he could do was nod.

The commotion aroused Sonic, Rogue, and Julie-Su from their sleep and now had their attention as they peered out from their curtained rooms. Aleutian stepped back inside his and slammed the curtains shut, breathing hard to calm himself down. Rogue just slammed her head back down on her pillow and rolled over back to sleep.

Julie-Su began to help Espio off the floor when he finished what he was about to say. "How'd he know?"

His answer came from behind the green drapes. "Echidna trade secret!"

Julie-Su look slyly at Espy. "Gee, where you've heard that before?"

Taking a deep breath, Aleutian grabbed his pen and continued where he left off:

"_...I took Knuckles to my home. It was almost a bad decision. For one, in a good way, he doesn't have to come and look for me, but he saw the pictures. He asked about her, but all I could say was that she was no one. I don't know if I should tell him but he has been lied to for so long, I almost want to set a precedent for him."_

Aleutian closed the book and packed it back into his bag. He stood up and stretched. The sudden pain from his back nearly sent him to the floor. Grabbing the pain killers from his bag, he dryly swallowed one down and left his cabin. The pain soon went away as he walked to the main hatch up to the bridge.

Aleutian climbed up to the top of the bridge, seeing Tails and Knuckles gazing out at the dark night with their binoculars.

"Hey Tails?" he said in a calm voice.

The kit fox looked over his shoulder with a wary grin. "Yes, Aleutian?"

"Go grab some sleep, I'll take over the rest of the watch," Aleutian instructed to him in the same tone.

Tails slowly climbed down after giving Aleutian the glasses. Knuckles was still looking out and enjoying the view of the moon and the stars. The feeling of the air pushing his dreads back was surreal. Aleutian moved to the right of the bridge and peered out with the binoculars.

"You seem to be happier here," Knuckles said.

"I was partly raised out here. Mathias plucked me from the sea the day I ran away."

"What..."

"...I tried to fly to the Island but I got caught in bad a storm," Aleutian sighed at the thought of the cold water. "I nearly died if it wasn't for the Plunger. Mathias's son, Chester; he took care good of me after he got me down below. He kept me warm and became my best friend, until he was lost at sea...right before my young eyes."

"Is that why you're hard?" Knuckles lightly asked.

Aleutian removed the glasses from his face and looked beyond the wakes that trailed from the bow. "No. The girl you asked about..."

"...Yes?" Knuckles perked up, looking over his shoulder and waiting for the answer.

"Her name was Emi-La, and she was my soul-equal." Aleutian slowly let out. "We were a perfect match Knuckles, an orphan and a runaway. The story is kinda long and I really don't want to dwell on it tonight"

Knuckles had to ask the obvious and he knew he wasn't going to get an answer. "What happened to her?" All Knuckles got was a lit, solemn bow from Aleutian's head.

Knuckles turned towards Aleutian and put his right mitt on his brother's shoulder. "I am glad you are here. I really don't like to swim, and neither does True Blue."

"And I thank you for dragging me back home. Seeing Mom again after all these years, I..." Aleutian cut himself off, choking back his tears.

Knuckles reached over and hugged his brother, who was still lost, but mostly in himself. "The running ends tonight Aleutian. Period!"

Aleutian squeezed Knuckles tighter, letting his tears run down from his face. "I hope so," he sobbed out in a whisper. "But I do know one thing, I am your brother, and I'm not leaving you again."

As the rest of the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix slept, Knuckles and Aleutian gazed through the night at the full moon and the stars. They were bonding now in their silence, watching one of the last things on Mobius that wasn't totally effected by war; the open sea. The water was smooth as glass until the Plunger disturbed it's peaceful cloak. The engines hummed through the night, but the roar was drowned out by the fast moving air over the two brothers' ears, brushing their locks passed their faces. For Aleutian, the course ahead was the way back, out of the darkness and back to what he truly should have done long ago; keeping his promise. With his white birthmark glowing in the moonlight, it became the beacon of light...to guide his lost soul.

* * *

Nice ending huh. The next chapter isn't so suddle...which is good, right? Please leave reviews and all, and tell me where I need to improve. It will make the next book a lot better.

* * *


	7. Deep Wounds

* * *

Violence and gore warning for those. Course some of you have read worse, but I am still putting the warning out there. Not much commintary from here on out. You've made it this far, and so the real journey and adventure begins here. Enjoy the ride and hopefully you all might learn something with this.

Disclaimer: I observe the rights of the creators of the Sonic Franchise.

Enjoy, and diffently leave a review. **  
**

* * *

**Deep Wounds  
**

by

Mauser

* * *

A ringing sound blossomed in his ears as darkness flickered with the invading light. Soon, the image of smoke peered through the light, making it seem like waving black hair was blowing in the breeze. As the high pitched ringing echoed harsher in Aleutian's ears, it intensified his blurred view as he slowly opened his eyes. He realized he was lying on his back, his face throbbing with enormous pain along with what felt like cuts behind his right eye, stinging as if salt water had been poured onto them. Wiping his muzzle to clear the dirt off of it, he felt a wet sensation on his hand as his efforts reenforced the pain on his face. When he examined it with his blurred vision, his red hand had turned to purple...he was bleeding.

Aleutian looked down at his boot covered feet. They seemed okay, but his face and head assaulted his senses with the harsh, crippling, burning agony. He could only hear the high pitched ringing echoing in his ears still, as nothing else registered around him. The ground beneath him felt cold, wet, and muddy, as if rain had recently soaked the area. He could even feel the wetness on his legs as the water had soaked through his black combat pants. Then, droplets fell on him. The cool water pelting his body as the rain started to bombard the ground again. Aleutian could see he was in a shallow hollow of a small unnaturally made hill; a trench, the aching echidna figured out. When he turned his head over to his right, his heart began to race from what he saw; a red furred fox laid dead on his side, his back facing Aleutian.

A muffled explosion crept into his ears, vibrating the ground beneath him, producing ripples in the small ponds of the craters that littered the long trench around him. It soon became louder as the echo of the ringing soon dissipated, followed by the sound of rain falling on metal and plastic. Then...a whimpered moan filtered through the air to his left. Aleutian painfully turned over to his right side, straightening his right arm on the ground beside him, but instead of mud, his black jacketed sleeve dug into a large plasma rifle at his side; its barrel covered with a square, plastic hand-guard that trace down the twenty inch barrel until it left a small portion of it exposed to the elements

He slowly got to his knees, picking up the rifle instinctively to balance himself on his shaky knees. His attention of his surroundings faded when he heard the soft moan again. Turning his aching head, his eyes squinting from the falling rain and the pain from his face and his aching muscles. Aleutian gasped when saw who was making the groans. He dropped the rifle and crawled at a frantic pace over to the downed female echidna.

"Emee!" Aleutian cried out. She was lying on her stomach; red and tan mud covered her black battle jacket that was littered with slits that slashed deep into her back. A rifle laid beside her but it was damaged beyond repair; he left arm laying on it; her right draped over the muddy ground.

Aleutian frantically took off his jacket before he painstakingly rolled his beloved over on her back, placing her head on the black jacket. Tears streamed down both of their faces that soon blended into the rain that fell in the mist of the two echidnas. With all he had, Aleutian shouted at the top of his lungs for a medic, repeating it with ferocity a second time. His call was blanketed with the surrounding sounds of mechanical machinery approaching from behind.

Emi-La grunted in pain as Aleutian turned and picked up the rifle he had dropped. "Aleutian, help me!" she cried out to her lover in pain.

"I am!" Aleutian said with his voice lowered, showing his resolve.

He kneeled up and steadied himself, putting a bead on the first oncoming Swat Bot with the holographic crosshair inside the small scope. The burst from the black rifle scared him at first as he squeezed the trigger. The orange hot bolt of energy met its mark at the head, slamming the android to the ground. Soon, two more of the greyish bots appeared over the trench, their glowing red visors piercing through the grey haze. As they approached, they took their aim with their arm blasters at Aleutian, but they didn't have time to touch them off to take down the enraged echidna. The Guardian let loose a series of double-taps at both bots into their torsos. The plasma rounds ripped into the lightly armored chassis, disintegrating their CPU's and other important functions on impact.

The dome from another Swat Bot suddenly appeared over the trench. Aleutian, again, took aim at it and squeezed the trigger, but this time nothing happened. He turned the rifle over on its right side, observing the cell battery was fully discharged from the reading of a digital meter. With another dome following behind the first Swat Bot, Aleutian clutched the hot barrel hand-guard of the rifle with his unprotected hands and charged down after the approaching droids. He sprinted to the left after he saw one of the bots touch off its blaster. The red beam burned through the air past the furious echidna...but it never phased him.

Aleutian swung the rifle hard, colliding the butt of the rifle across the head of the nearest bot. The grey dome snapped off from the torso, flying like a frisbee across the torn Mobian landscape. Aleutian dropped the busted rifle and using the still standing torso of the bot that he just decapitated, he sprinted hard and leaped up, landing both feet dead center on the falling chassis. As the torso tumbled, Aleutian kicked off from it and used the momentum, and along with his dreads, he glided through the air, flying over the second bot and landing behind it. The android couldn't turn in time when Aleutian smashed his right fist through the hard metal frame, the Guardian's hand being embalmed with a green ball of electric energy. He was connecting to the Chaos Emerald in his desperate time of need.

His rage broke when he heard Emi-La let out a blood curtailing scream from the trench. "ALEUTIAN!"

Thirty feet in front of her was an approaching black Swat Bot, its arm raised, taking aim at her. Emi-La forced herself to unholster her pistol from her side. With the pain reverberating throughout her body, she took pop shots at the bot that was bearing down on her. But the armor was too strong for the minuscule weapon, only tarnishing its outer skin with black marks.

Aleutian ran over to his busted rifle and retrieved it from the muddy ground. With a hard grunt that sounded more like a battle cry, he flung it hard through the grey overshadowed day. He guided the somersaulting weapon with his sight, summoning the power of the Emerald and channeling it's energy to guide the flying, destructive stick where it would do the most damage. The barrel pierced through the torso, slamming into the main battery that sprayed acid on vital operating parts. The blow shut the Swat Bot off instantly, collapsing its metal-self onto the ground.

Emi-La dropped her pistol and placed her free hand over her stomach, breathing hard from the pain and from the relief of Aleutian's gallant save. She could see Aleutian running over to her, tears streaming down his face along with the purple blood that ran down from his snout. He slid across the ground, stopping right next to her side.

"Don't leave me Aleutian!" she cried out. "Don't leave me, please!"

Aleutian felt around her body but didn't find any wounds on her front side, but he knew her backside was a wreck. He noticed that she was feeling around her stomach:

"Are you hit there?" he asked loudly over the far off explosions from the burning hunks of robotic tanks that were slain to the four-winds, his eyes forcing his question to her.

"You've got to get me out of here..."

"...No problem, dear," Aleutian said tearfully, confirming his whole mind set, but what she said next made him realize that their whole situation was far graver.

"No Aleutian, you have to get me out of her...I'm carrying our child!" she whimpered out, grabbing Aleutian's arms and thrusting them to her mid-drift that was cover with a green shirt; ripped to shreds. It drove the point home to Aleutian. His sight flashed with a premature egg cradled inside of her, the vision brought to him by his ability to gaze inside things that he could see with his touch...and Emi-La knew it all too well.

She stared hard into his eyes. Aleutian's mouth trembled in seeing his beloved in great pain that he couldn't stop. Purple blood traced down his face and trickled down his neck as he fought hard to think. He reached around her back and tried to lift her, but she screamed at the top of her lungs from the excruciating pain. Her piercing cry echoed in Aleutian's ears as he brought his hand away...it was covered with her blood.

"If I move you, it'll cause more damage Emee." he said, trying ever so hard to keep his composure.

Bring his hand around her back once more, Aleutian saw with his touch that the shrapnel pieces were piercing deeper into her, causing more internal trauma that he couldn't stop. Aleutian didn't have to say a word; his face told Emi-La the whole story. She squeezed her eyes hard, trying to shun the tears away. With her breaths growing faster and deeper, she reached down and grabbed Aleutian's hands and held them tight.

A loud explosion ripped behind the two. The Swat Bot's battery went critical and exploded, spraying its armor all over the battlefield. Aleutian felt two hot shards enter into his back as he pushed himself onto Emi-La, cover her from the flying debris of death. None of the showered pieces of hot metal landed on the female Echidna...but Aleutian knew it wouldn't have made much difference anyways. His focus on Emi-La numbed all the pain that his nerves were telling him that were there.

Emi-La reached up with her shaking right hand as her breaths became quicker, pulling Aleutian's head down to her sweet lips. "Go home to your brother, my love," she painfully whispered. "Promise me you'll go and forget about all of this."

Sobbing as her words softly filtered in the sick air, he made his promise. "I will Emee, I will..."

She smiled and blinked her long eyelashes. The harsh pain began to fade with every hard breath she fought to take in. She swallowed hard to clean her throat before telling her lover, her equal...

"...I love you Aleutian...my Guardian. And I forever will."

Emi-La took a hard, deep breath, shuddering on the intake while her hand still gently caressed the left side of Aleutian's face. Then, her eyes went wide, almost looking as if she was being freed from her fight to stay alive. Aleutian watched as her heart ceased to beat. With her last breath, Emi-La's eyes closed to the world for the last time, her body going limp in Aleutian's hands. Her face looked eerily and painfully peaceful in his weeping eyes.

"No..." Aleutian whimpered in disbelief, forcing himself onto her lifeless body, embracing her as if she could still feel him...

* * *

"...NO!!!" Aleutian shouted, awakening with sweat that seemed to be rolling down his back. But sweat didn't cause fierce pain. His eyes went wide with the excruciating stabbing feeling in his back. Reaching around for the source of the pain to caress it, he lost his fragile balance on the edge of his bunk and plummeted to the hard metal floor. He screamed with the pain as he fell.

Rogue awoke to the screams of someone in great agony. She rolled over and looked down to see Aleutian in the fetal position, rolling on his left side, and yelling at the top of his lungs. She dropped down to the metal floor with her bare feet, tugging on his shoulder with both hands.

"What's wrong?" she asked Aleutian, in a very concerned tone. All she got was more screaming. She knew it was from the pain, that was obvious, but she could also pick out crying behind his breaths. Rogue reached down with her hand to keep herself steady, but she nearly slipped on the warm wet floor. Looking down at what her hand was drowning in, she gasp at the sight from the pool of purple blood.

"Help!" she screamed. If Aleutian hadn't awakening the whole boat by now, she sure was.

Sonic was the first to appear, pulling the curtains back. "What happened?" he barked out.

"I don't know. He started screaming, and I went down to help him," she nearly pleaded at Sonic. "Better get the doc! His shirt is soaked in blood," she explained, pointing to the shirt that Aleutian had grabbed back at his house, showing that it was drenched.

Sonic rushed to Dr. Quack's room, who was grabbing his medical gear as soon as he heard the screams. "Doc, something's wrong with Aleutian."

"What's up!?" came Quack, his medical and his professional tone coming into play as he dawned on his white doctor's coat.

"He's lying on he floor and he's bleeding out from his back," Sonic said as he was on the move with the eye-patched duck.

Sonic led the way, joined by Knuckles, Julie-Su and Mathias. Knuckles froze when he saw his brother on the floor, shaking violently and moaning with tears in his eyes.

"What'd' ya' do, Rogue?" snapped Julie-Su.

"Nothing! Don't go blaming this on me!"

"Shut-up, both of you," fired Knuckles. "What do you need Doctor?"

"Hold him still," Quack said calmly as he kneeled down beside Aleutian and Rogue.

He reached into his bag and pulled out a syringe and a vial of anesthesia. Plucking the needle inside the bottle, he pulled hard on the plunger until he saw the "CC" amount that he wanted. Holding the syringe with one hand, he jabbed the needle hard into Aleutian's arm and pressed the plastic plunger home. Instantly, Aleutian fell unconscious, his last breath whimpering out as a moan.

"How much stuff did you give him, Doc!?" asked Sonic, surprised at the quickness of the echidna going out like a light.

"Enough to put a horse down for a week," Quack replied quickly. He then reached back into his bag and pulled a set of angled scissors out. Pulling back on Aleutian's shirt, he went to work in clipping it away from him. What he saw made him shake his head. "He's hemorrhaging. We need to move him to a large table...fast!"

Knuckles, Mathias, Sonic, and Julie-Su slowly lifted Aleutian from the blood soaked floor, keeping him on his left side. Carefully shuffling to the dining table, they gently placed him down on top of it. They all stood fast and waited for what the eye-patched doctor needed next.

Tails rushed over with the medical bag in tow. Quack pulled out a small, handheld X-ray device from the bag that the fox held, and activated it, placing it over the oozing wound on Aleutian's back. He could see on the screen two long pieces of metal protruding in the lower back of the limp echidna. Grabbing two sets of hemostats, and pulling on his surgical mask and gloves, he started to get to work, but the tossing of the Plunger in the rough seas began to make it difficult for him to steady his hands.

"Steady him everyone," he ordered.

The gathered onlookers held Aleutian tight, but the sea was too rough, even with all the steady hands. Doctor Quack quickly turned to Mathias, "Can you steady the boat?"

"Oh yes, I can steady this boat," Mathias said with a hint of a growl.

"Please sir...I need a steady operating table."

Mathias turned to the gathered onlookers. "Everyone, except you two," pointing at Rogue and Julie-Su, "to the command compartment. We are diving."

The statement snapped Dr. Quack's head around. "What!?" he gulped.

"Below the surface doc, there are no waves. Trust me," he replied confidently as he looked at the rest of the shocked crew and smirked. "Stations everyone! Rotor, you and Mighty to the engine room; shut them down, and close the exhaust ports. Go!"

Rotor and Mighty quickly moved through the rear compartments, swinging through the hatchways in graceful leaps.

Slamming his foot hard on the metal deck, Rotor moved to the rear open access hatch that lead out to the deck of the sub. He closed it without even getting an order...it was just common sense. Turning his attention to the running yellow diesel engines, Rotor reached for the levels and pushed them up, killing the ignition. The sounds of the heavy cylinders knocking against the compression died as their momentum slowed to a halt. Mighty got the gist of it and did the same to the second. By then, Rotor had shut off the control panel on the side and was reaching up to the exhaust port hand cranks. With ever twist, he grunted hard as he closed the exhaust vents from the outside world.

Mathias had everyone almost situated. Knuckles was sent to close the top hatch on the bridge, and Julie-Su to leave Aleutian to go shut the forwards access hatch. Sonic and Tails were seated in front of the dive planes, with Espio and Vector operating the venting valves, each turning the two hand wheels, that were at either side of the compartment as fast as they could.

"Tails!" Who was placed behind the front dive planes, "turn yours to the right, Sonic, to the left!" Mathias ordered.

He watched Knuckles slid down from the ladder after he clamped the main hatch down. "Get on those levers in front of the periscope," he said to the hard breathing Guardian, "reach up and pull them down."

Knuckles nodded and hurried to the four red levers. Grabbing the right pair first with his mittens, he yanked them down hard. The ratcheting sound they produced echoed through the command compartment as they locked down in place. Grabbing the last pair, he put his whole body into the task. When he was done, Knuckles stood by for what Mathias might have needed next; sounds of water rushing into the saddle ballast tanks filtered through the boat as he tried to regain his breath.

As the air was rushing out of the main vents, creating spray along with shooting up geysers on the sides of the hull, the Plunger began to gently sink, it's bow being first to disappear. The long guide wire that stretched from the tip of the boat to the front of the bridge, began to shake with the speed of the water hitting it from the forward motion. Soon afterward, the deck gun disappeared beneath the choppy waves, followed by the conning tower as it was bombarded by the sea. After the forty seconds that the Plunger took to dive under the waves, all that was evident of its presence was the fading wake, and the slip stream that was produced from the propellers when it was running on the surface.

"Twenty degrees down bubble, boys," ordered Mathias with a sly grin, "Sonic, rotate your wheel to the right now. Hover over a fifteen to twenty degree angle on the planes," he instructed, pointing at the dive plane needles that showed the angle of the elevators. "Same to you too Tails. Take us down to a hundred meters."

As the boat tilted down, both Tails and Sonic kept a close eye on the bubble. When the bubble dipped to far down, Tails would back off and Sonic would help compensate. The two had worked with each other for so long that they practically knew what the other was thinking.

"Close the vents," Mathias said as he watched the needle pass over fifteen meters, holding onto an overhead pipe in the process. As Mathias had ordered, Vector and Espio turned the wheels in the opposite direction that they had previously spun them. "When you're done Vector, go to the sonar cabin and start listening out for us," the old dingo added.

"Aye Captain," replied the Croc. He watched Mathias smirk at the reply.

"Knuckles, close the ballast tanks, please," Mathias instructed next.

Knuckles went over to the handles and clutched the red bicycle looking brakes on the handles, pushing the levers up to the ceiling; stopping the water from flooding the ballast tanks.

Looking over the gauges, Mathias attentively watched as the depth needle ranged through the numbers, along with the digital clock that counted up the numbers that was placed underneath the needled gauge: 15 meters; then 20; then 25 meters as the Plunger quickly ran through its dive; its electric motors wining at ahead full. The concern for him at the rate they were going, was that Sonic and Tails could loose control of the dive, sinking them and possibly never be able to come back up from the deep. But they were doing surprisingly well for the first time. He now realized why Aleutian had chosen them. They worked as if they could predict each other's next move.

"Rotor, all motors ahead standard," Mathias said through the radio.

Rotor passed through to the electric motor compartment and lowered the two handles to the ordered setting. He watched as the counter rotating shafts slowed their revolutions.

At thirty-five meters, the moans from the attacking water that was pressing up against the doubled metal hull started echoing inside the boat. This got everyone's attention except for Mathias, who knew what the heavy water pressure was doing. But, for first time divers, the sound was a nightmare. When Rogue was startled by the creaks from the metal hull, she stiffened her grip on Aleutian...it kept her hand from shaking from her fright of the noise. Deeper and deeper the Plunger sank, and as it did, the groans became more frequent and louder. Knuckles stared at the metal roof, almost anticipating the sea to come crashing down on them, his arms crossed through the whole ordeal with his mouth in awe.

Mathias broke the silence when the needle passed over ninety. "Okay, start leveling us out you two," he said softly.

As Sonic and Tails slowly began to level out the planes, the Plunger settled from her dive, cruising at eight knots through the dark water. Mathias walked back to the navigation console, typed in the depth, and activated the automatic depth pilot, letting the computer handle the trimming of the tanks and planes.

"Okay you two, good work! Lets make the computer handle the hard stuff now," Mathias said with a smile.

"What? You mean you could've let a machine do what we just did!" Sonic exclaimed, still jittery after the dive. He wasn't too crazy about being a hundred meters below the surface.

"Yes Sonic, but you two needed to get a feel for this. When we surface and dive again, I'll let two others do it as well, but one of you will be instructing the others. Is that clear?"

"Absolutely," said Tails, giving Mathias a thumbs up as he got up from the cushioned stool.

"Good. Now, we need to give aid and comfort to our crippled friend," Mathias solemnly advised, nodding at Knuckles with a comforting gaze. The old Dingo knew what was going through the young Guardian's mind.

"Mathias, why does that seem to have a double meaning?" Sonic pondered out loud. Mathias just lowered his head in confirmation.

Both Rogue and Julie-Su were still clamped onto Aleutian. Doctor Quack had pulled out another set of hemostats as the gathered friends watched over the task. Mathias grabbed a mixing bowl, filled it with water, and placed it by Quack who was about to start digging into the back of Aleutian.

With the sub gliding under the waves, the good doctor placed his hand over the open wound. Spreading the furred skin apart with two fingers, he gently inserted the scissored looking instrument inside Aleutian's back. Cautiously feeling around the muscles and tissue, he felt one of the shards touch the tip of the hemostat. Quack opened the hemostat, its top and bottom tongs lined with smoothed teeth, and clamped down on the shrapnel. As he pulled out the alien piece from Aleutian's back, more purple blood oozed out. Quickly seeing this, Knuckles took a clean gauze patch and lightly pressed it against his brother's back, soaking up the precious fluids to help keep the wound clean for Dr. Quack. Unlocking the hemostats, the blood soaked metal fell into the silver bowl.

Grabbing the other clean pair of hemostats (everything has to be clean to keep the spread of infection down) Doctor Quack began to go after the last piece, but he forgot where it was lodged in Aleutian's back.

"Tails, turn the X-Ray on and place it here," he observed, pointing just above the oozing hole. Knuckles again soaked up the blood and stood by at the ready.

With the imagine coming up, Quack gently inserted the instrument and carefully rotated it at the angle he needed. Following his moves on the screen, he clamped down on the last shard that was no smaller than the first, and pulled it out. Instantly, he dropped the hemostats in the bowl and picked up a pile of clean gauze bandages that lay beside him. He pushed them hard against Aleutian's back, clotting the tiny blood vessels in the wound.

"Sewing kit!" he ordered. Sonic reached into the Doc's bag and pulled out a smaller bag. Quack opened it and produced a needle and black thread. "Spray!" he ordered next Again, Sonic stuck his hand in the medical bag and tossed the duck a white spray can.

Knuckles watched the doctor sew his brother's wound up, noticing that Quack pressed the ends of the wound tightly together, closing the wound against itself to prevent the noticeable scarring. After cutting the excess string, Quack snapped the cap off the can and sprayed its contents over the wound. Finally, he placed a large gauze pad over the section he had expertly cleaned up, and tightly taped it around Aleutian's left backside.

Pulling off his mask and wiping the sweat from his forehead, the Doctor gave the next instructions. "In a couple of days, he won't even know what was done back there. There will be no scarring." he turned to Mathias while removing his gloves. "Wish he had come to me when those cuts were still fresh!"

"I didn't have the means to get him to you, and you all were too busy as it was. Can you do anything for them anyways?" asked Mathias as he pointed to the scars on Aleutian's face.

"I'm sorry, but they've already healed. I can't clean them up without cutting into them. Furthermore, it could make them look far worse," Quack said in defeat. He then looked over to Knuckles, who was eying his brother. "I'm sorry Knux."

Knuckles took in a deep breath and with a sad look, he exhaled it. He was hoping that the scars could be cleaned up, for Aleutian's sake. He knew that to forget the past, you must remove that of what reminds.

"Lets move him to a bunk everyone," Quack sighed gently.

Picking up Aleutian, they moved him into Sonic and Tails's cabin. They placed the limp Guardian on the bottom bunk, and covered him with some blankets that were still warm. As Tails wrapped them around Aleutian, he noticed water droplets forming on the wall of the hull. It was condensation that formed from the warm inside temperature of the Plunger and the cool outside temperature of the ocean.

"Okay, lets get us back to the surface. Fifteen degrees up bubble," Mathias said.

He, Knuckles, Sonic, Tails and Espio maneuvered themselves back through the command compartment. Mathias then walked over to a space that was covered with a rack of valves. Turning two large wheels, the sound of rushing air bellowed throughout the sub. In the aft torpedo room of the sub, two large tanks sat towards the forward bulkhead, filled with compressed air. At over 600 PSI, the air was blown into the ballast tanks, sending the water back out to the ocean. When the ballast tanks were replaced with the compressed air, the Plunger began the short journey back to the surface, this time, with Knuckles and Espio at the dive planes.

The bridge was the first thing to hit the fresh, free air of the Mobian morning; looking as if it was monument that had beaten the clutches of the sea as it pushed through the surface. Soon, the structure cables began to crest above the water, and lastly, the wooden deck glistened in the sun when it reached the surface.

Rotor got the engines running again by himself; Vector secured himself from the hydro phone as the rest of the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix soon relaxed from the morning rush.

"Hey Doc, what's for breakfast?" asked Sonic, feeling the hunger pains coming on.

The duck scratched his head before replying. "I'll think of something, but you better clean the table up first."

"No prob,"

"Quack, I can help you out," came Julie-Su, yawning. As she moved out of the room, she looked over her shoulder to see if Rogue was following her out...she wasn't. She was sitting on the floor beside Aleutian and was still holding on to him, running her white gloved fingers through his dreads, her frightened gaze never leaving him.

"Hey...you okay girl?" Julie-Su asked, actually giving a hoot about Rogue's well being.

"Someone needs to look after him. Afraid I'm not much good right now after our little stunt. Honestly Su, I've never been so scared until five minutes ago."

"So why are you still holding onto the guy that almost shot you?" Julie-Su asked with a sly smirk. She knew what was probably going on, and she didn't care, so as long as she could keep Knuckles all to herself.

Rogue smiled before opening up her mind to the pink echidna for once. "He needs someone Julie. The way he is right now, he needs someone."

"Your funeral when he wakes up," and having the last word, Julie went after her Guardian.

Rogue just sat where she was, stroking the long red locks and smiling, _"What were you crying about? You're too strong to cry over a cut like that."_

Tails found himself thumbing the switch up and down to activate the radar, problem was, it wasn't activating. "Mathias, we've got a problem...but I think I can fix it."

"Now what!?" came the Dingo, starting to feel his age.

"Our radar is kaput."

Looking at the blank screen, Mathias turned to the intercom mike and pushed down the black button. "Rotor, you and Vector up top with binoculars. You two have the first watch for the next four hours. We'll send you food when its done."

Mathias then turned to the twin tailed fox. "If you can fix it young man, do it to it."

Miles smiled, saluted, and turned to study the grey metal box with the round green screen. "Doesn't seem to be too hard."

* * *

Breakfast was served an hour later. Before sitting down to eat, Mathias checked their position on the G.P.S. They had entered the channel between the two islands during Aleutian's surgery. Seeing that the local time was only 9:47, they would spend most of the traveling day going through the straight before they broke out to the open sea. After stopping Tails from working on the radar box, he and the fox made their way to the cleaned off dining table. Except for Rotor and Vector, everyone else found a place to sit, some of them pulling up chairs from their cabins.

Doctor Quack, though, had more on his mind than eating. He stirred his fork in his eggs, gazing at the iron walls. He was the first to break the fragile ice of Aleutian's dark and emotional past. "So, Sir Mathias Drake...you mind telling me how two pieces of Swat Bot armor got into that boy's back?" His eye patch gave him all the leverage he needed.

"Why do you ask Doctor? I figured you for one who just operated and be done with it?"

"Not I sir, I always like to know how foreign objects get into the wrong parts on someone's anatomy. My profession you know."

"Swat Bot armor?" perked up Knuckles.

Mathias drew in a long breath, thinking carefully about what he wanted to say. It wasn't that he wanted to lie, but most of what he knew was speculation at best. Then there was Emee. That story he would try to shy away from. If Aleutian wanted the past to be known, he would tell it, being as no one else could. _"Since most of them are dead,"_ Mathias coldly said to himself.

"Honestly I don't know how he got that." And for Mathias, that was partly the truth.

Knuckles sifted his stiff gaze at Mathias. "He didn't tell you?" he asked flatly, feeling he was being lied to.

"He only told me what he wanted me to know." Now Mathias was border lining on what he wanted to say.

"So what did he tell you?" Tails asking the question that someone was bound to ask.

Mathias sighed at his plate before continuing. "Aleutian was betrayed," he let out. "He was betrayed, and honestly, I don't know why...he just wouldn't tell me," he partially lied.

"That can't be why he's so mean," grunted Sonic, "I mean c'mon, it all has to be a show. No one goes around constantly fueled by being betrayed."

"He does if he was the only one left in a battle! He saw most of our friends die because someone had second thoughts on what team they wanted to play on," shot back Mathias, forgetting his limits on what he wanted to say.

Sonic shrugged his shoulders, putting his banter to work for once. "Hey dude, we lost two in one week, both fine warriors and awesome friends, and I do miss them. But you don't see me fumed about it," Sonic snorted as he leaned back in the bench, crossing his hands around the back of his head. "No...I think ole' scar face is just trying to show how tough he is."

"Sonic!" came Tails, Julie-Su and Espio all at the same time. Julie-Su saw Knuckles's temper began to flare with every syllable from Sonic's words. _"No need to stop the punch to shut him up," _she thought.

But before Knuckles made the decision to make a fist, Mathias shot up from his seat. "Is that so!?" he scorned out, looking at the whole table with a his eyes glaring at everyone.

He then turned and left the compartment, only returning a moment later with a picture in his hands. "All show eh?!" he hammered out, his face painted with anger. Mathias slammed the picture hard on the table, the dishes clattered from the force of the impact:

"SHE DIED IN HIS ARMS!"

Before them, was the same picture of Emi-La that Knuckles had seen in Aleutian's home. Her smile sent a wave of heat throughout his body. Then the mental image hit him; seeing her smile fading into sorrow. Why Aleutian was the way he was was slowly, and painfully, coming together. And also why he wasn't going to even talk about it.

Mathias looked at everyone sitting at the table with a stern face. "Aleutian paid dearly to try to stop Robonick from entering Knothole, but he was betrayed and led into a trap along with our friends. And to THIS day, he is still being betrayed," he paused, hissing in the diesel filled air, "by those who should be grateful that the force that entered Knothole wasn't any bigger than it was. I am so glad he is out cold right now! He doesn't have to put up with what I'm having to. AND YOU HEDGEHOG!" he harshly pointed at Sonic, his teeth showing under his grey jowls, "Don't you EVER call him that in MY presence AGAIN! Legend or not; I will throw you off this boat! IS THAT CLEAR!?"

Sonic just nodded his head, his teeth chattering from the verbal beating he just took.

"Who is she Mathias?" came Julie-Su with a soft voice, trying to calm everyone down.

Knuckles replied before Mathias could. "Her name is Emi-La, Julie Su. Aleutian told me a little bit about her last night."

"A little bit doesn't scratch the surface Knuckles. I see how you and Julie are, and it is no where near what Emi-La was to Aleutian."

"So this is what you ment when you said that 'he isn't the same Aleutian you knew' back at the house," Knuckles asked, hopefully feeding Mathias the right questions.

Mathias sank back down in his seat before replying. "If all had gone well, you would have met your brother two years ago...no scars, no hate, no darkness," Mathias breathed out. "Before they left to stop Julian, Emi-La told him that he needed to go to you, and she would accompany him. But an old friend of ours came calling up for people for a possible last ditch effort. I don't know what all else transpired, but, I do know that before Emi-La succumbed to her wounds, she made him promise to go home, to help you Knuckles,"

"You saw her die..."

"...No Guardian...Aleutian told me about her last request. I thought losing my son Chester was hard, but having Aleutian break down in front of me, bleeding all over my house, and telling me her last moments." Mathias stopped to gain his composure; "she meant a lot to the both of us." _"And how you almost became an uncle, dear Knuckles." _he cried to himself.

"Knuckles, of all beings, I never imagined that you would make your brother, who you never knew existed, keep his promise to the one that to this day, still truly loves! You don't know how much it means to me that he went back home...hopefully he'll go back on his own next time. He owes it to her...but you have to get him there. Believe me, I've tried, and you have my full sympathy young echidna; you have your work cut out for you."

Knuckles looked up from his plate. "My father said that 'he needs me and I needs him,'" he quoted over his uneven voice.

"Put it a step further; he needs you all and you all need him."

Everyone starred at the picture in silence before they continued their meals. But before they did, Mathias had the ultimate last word...

"...He wears the scars of betrayal, so hopefully you all don't have too."


	8. Cross Wakes

* * *

Lets have some fun. This was a fun chapter to create and I mostly did this from experince of a game I play.

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Sega's Original Characters.**  
**

* * *

**Cross Wakes  
**

by

Mauser

* * *

Three hours later and four time zones away:

Elias found himself in a constant parry pose with the sword of his birth right steadily hanging over his head. He grasped closer to the hilt with both hands as he lowered his stance towards the ground, posing himself to strike at the programed metal hedgehog. Being as some materials were in high demand in the current time of war, Elias had one of Eggman's bots reactivated and given a program to duel swords with. He feverishly trained hard with the metal hedgehog as much as he could.

Soon, the Sonic look-a-like, that was sent in along with Shadow many moons ago, rushed forward, it's wooden stick set to slice at Elias when it got within striking range of the ground squirrel. Seeing this, the acting King brought down his sword and blocked it. The force of the impact nearly threw him off balance. The bot's sensors picked this up instantly and pivoted around Elias's back before the King had time to counteract. With a light tap from the maple stick, the duel was over.

Elias grunted with defeat, yet again, and started going back over the fight in his head when he was startled by someone clapping from the entrance of the training room in Castle Acorn. "Bravo metal Sonic, bravo. So what's the score up to now?" It was Amadeus Prower, his blue tunic uniform firmly pressed against his chest as the waving medals caught the light from the mid-afternoon sun and reflected the light around the room. His right eye patch moved when the fox smiled at Elias.

"Six to two now, no thanks to Tail's programming," briefly sighed Elias, shifting his blue cloak around for better comfort.

"Ah, the art of swordsmanship. Brings back some painful memories," Amadeus chuckled.

"I think I'm reliving them for you," Elias smiled. "Power down," he ordered at the mechanical hedgehog. The metallic blue machine turned off at once, settling it's limbs to the floor. "So what brings you here?"

"Wanting to know how you all fight a war with your soldiers scattered to the four winds?"

"They're not really soldiers General. They do take orders, but I have a hard time considering them as 'soldiers,'" countered Elias.

The General nodded at the comment. "Well, the people I need are not here Your Majesty. I do want to help you with my learned experiences, but I do need warm bodies to help."

Elias turned to the fox; Amadeus's bearing never flinted as he stepped closer to him. "I understand, but there is nothing going on that I know of, so most of our people should still be here."

"I'm sorry to inform you King, but they're not."

Sally heard every word of the discussion as she stood behind the door. She didn't mean to sleep the whole day, yesterday, but between the jet lag and the previous days' excitement, her body needed to recharge.

She slowly waltzed into the room, walking up behind Tails's father, "Sorry I haven't been forthcoming, been tired the past couple of days. There 'is' something going on that you two should know."

"Really Sally?" said Elias, smiling at seeing his sister, "do tell."

"They left yesterday for Angel Island..."

"...I thought it was too dangerous to go there, especially with Eggman's fleet controlling the skies," inquired Amadeus.

"They're not going by air...they're going by sea..."

Amadeus threw his hands in the air in disbelief upon hearing her words. "Now they're goners for sure. They're sitting ducks, Your Highness!"

"Not if the boat disappears," Sally replied ominously.

"A boat that disappears? We have nothing like that as a trump card, Sally," pointed out Elias.

Amadeus turned white, his mouth dropping upon hearing the Princess's words. He then shook his head with a sly grin. "That old sea dog..."

"...You know him!?" cried out Sally.

Elias stepped closer to his sister and the General, his face painted with puzzlement as he sheathed his sword. "Know who?"

"Sir Drake...Sir Mathias Drake?"Amadeus asked, nudging his head forward at Sally.

Sally just nodded with a stare, her arms folded in front of her chest.

Amadeus' smile broaden. "After all these years while I was in space; I thought he'd just disappeared all together. I take it Princess, you've seen your Father's most secret weapon?"

"What secret weapon!?" Elias festered.

"See..." pointed out Sally, showing that she wasn't the only one in the dark. "Yes I have General, and it is off to sea with Knothole's finest to sink something that is running a blockade around Angel Island."

"There's a name for that thing, Your Highness," came Geoffrey from behind the trio. "One of my operators retrieved some interesting information for me. Eggman calls it the 'Dreadbot.'"

Sally snuffed at the name. "Shows how original he is."

"Yes, but the idea is. Eggman is definitely running a blockade. The machine has claimed two more transports, which brings the grand total up to three now. One happened to be an Overlander family that was brought down yesterday," St. John said, his voice never flinching.

"The whole family?" asked Elias sympathetically.

Geoffrey confirmed the King's fear by lowering his head. "Afraid so, Sire."

"So how did you get wind of the Plunger, young Princess?" Amadeus asked with a smirk. Just the idea of the Plunger still patrolling and causing havoc for the Kingdom of Acorn was starting to turn a bad day into a good one.

"Okay, to tell that, I have to start two days ago," Sally pronounced, her arms crossing, "Did you all know that Knuckles has a brother?" Sally instantly threw her hands up to stop the replies, knowing what the answers were going to be. But they came anyway.

"Kneecaps right, but how does his half..." came Elias.

"...No, I mean..." Sally flustered, raising her hands higher up. Gathering her thoughts, she started over. "Knuckles has a full brother, and he _is _a Guardian."

"White mark around the collar?" questioned Amadeus. He too, knew what the qualification was to be considered "royalty" to the Echidnas.

"Yes, no question about it!"

Elias's stood in shock, his head pressed between his shoulders.

Sally smirked at her brother. "Don't worry, the surprise will soon fade once you meet him..."

"...I'm not surprised that Knuckles has a full brother, dear Sister, but, I am surprised that his brother is alive."

Sally's mouth dropped open along with Geoffrey's, who was about to throw a raving fit.

"His name's Aleutian? Right?" asked Elias, his tone deepening. Sally and St. John just nodded their heads in amazement. Elias's face turned from shock to joy in the blink of an eye. "My best friend is still alive! After all these years, I thought he died while trying to runaway."

"You KNEW this!" shouted Sally. "Now who isn't telling who now?"

Elias walked over and placed his hands on Sally's shoulders. "I had forgotten about him, Sally. With all that has happened: my return, my rise, and now trying to salvage what we've lost; you forget about the dead and try to keep the living alive," nodding his head on Sally's. "Tell me, how did he came to us?"

Sally started at the beginning. From the showdown between Aleutian and Knuckles, Sonic grabbing his guns, to the jail incident, then when Knuckles let him go; Ebony Hare arrived into Knothole, Aleutian's return, Ebony Hare dragging his dead muscle out of Knothole after Aleutian's return; then the trip to Angel Island, the bad trip back from Angel Island, and then, meeting Sir Drake and his rusty boat, that she hoped was still holding together.

Geoffrey then spoke up about his observations. "I have mixed feelings about him, Your Majesty. He is cold, if you know what I mean?"

"How so?" asked Elias. So, Geoffrey told him about the scars and the funky move that almost separated his arm from his shoulder.

"He got that from someplace else," pointed out Elias.

"How so, and how did you meet him anyways?" barked out Sally.

Elias formed his lips into a smile. "I lived there, remember. When I was a young lad, Locke would bring Aleutian over so I could have a playmate every once in awhile. Aleutian would show me some of his moves he learned, then we would play...you know, child's games." Elias then paused, reflecting on the sad day he heard of Aleutian's death. "Then one day Locke came by to see my progress and I overheard him telling the Colonel that Aleutian had ran away and died. Drowned I think he said."

"Sir Mathias said he rescued Aleutian from the sea when he was young," quoted Sally. "He even said that Aleutian had almost slipped under if they hadn't surfaced under him. Then he almost died of hypothermia and pneumonia."

Elias shook his head with a half smile, half frown. "But the Ninjutsu;" turning to St. John, "that move is a Ninjutsu tactic that he used on you."

"Okay, that explains that," confirming the Commander, remembering seeing the craft ages ago.

"But it doesn't explain where he got it," questioned Elias. "He left when he was six, only learning a handful of martial arts styles. Kick boxing I knew to be one, Whi Ti was another, and I think the beginnings of Aikido and Judo, but, the Ninjutsu was saved for last. The Fire Ants didn't like the Guardians using it unless they had too."

"Well," Geoffrey started, "if he is going to help us, he's going to need lots of therapy. Something is really burning inside of him."

Amadeus spoke next. "Is he with them on the voyage?"

"I didn't see him get off," Sally replied, still questioning the scarred Guardian's loyalty, "he even read from a scroll before they got underway."

"Old tradition, which, we need to come up with one ourselves: better communication amongst ourselves," commented Amadeus.

Elias nodded and then looked around at his gathered high officers and his sister before he quoted a past Overlander, "'A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.' If he has been a loner like you've explained Sally, then I think he has begun the long journey back. I am confident he will help us." Elias sighed, turning around and looking out through the high glass windows. "It's an omen. My father getting better, you Amadeus, coming back to us, and now with Aleutian alive, saved by a forgotten warrior...things are hopefully about to turn."

* * *

"Espio incoming message,"the female computer voice beeped. Espio was lying in his bunk and counting the threads that made up the net that held one of the brown torpedoes over his head. After his trance was broken, he reached up to his belt that was hanging from the supporting net, grabbed the computer, and switched Nicole on by flipping the small LCD screen up.

"I can't download the message from here Espio, there's too much interference," she said. Espio rolled out his bunk and hurried to the nearest open hatch, ducking under the swinging chains that hung overhead: realizing that the sub's metal hull was restricting the radio frequency.

Before he started up the ladder, Mathias came through the crew's compartment and stopped him after seeing the computer in the chameleon hands. "I have a radio jack for that. Follow me," he instructed. So, Espy did, trailing the Dingo to the radar station where Tails had the radar unit apart and scattered all over the table. What Miles thought was going to be an easy fix, turned out to be a frustrating endeavor.

"Need to use your work space for a second son," came Mathias as he fished through the scattered parts for a certain cable. Uncovering it in the mix of the circuit boards, he handed it to Espio who plugged it in. Nicole announced in an instant that she was receiving the message.

Sally's voice came through the small speakers, sounding like an overbearing teacher giving out a very important lesson as her brown furry face appeared on the screen. "I have information on your target. We got some intel in yesterday from one of St. John's operators about Eggman's new plan. He calls it the 'Dreadbot' and so far it has downed two more craft since yesterday. We don't have much on specs except that it is armed to the teeth: missiles, cannons, and possibly torpedoes. That bit is still unconfirmed. Patrol areas are also still unknown except our best guesses. Sorry that there isn't more, but at least you have something. Knothole out."

Mathias had instructed Sally to keep messages short and sweet before they departed yesterday. It wasn't that Eggman had broken the complicated ciphers, but he could possibly track the destinations of the traffic. For a boat that was traveling at about thirty kilometers per hour, that made the Plunger a sitting duck. Yes it could dive, but Mathias knew how long it would take, and with the new Robotnick and his new devices, he could sink them before they could ever sink themselves.

Tails commented. "So it has a name, finally."

"So it seems, young man" replied Mathias. "Our mission isn't unknown anymore...we sink the Dreadbot," he breathed out with resolve in his voice.

With the object now fresh on his mind, he turned and walked towards the torpedo room. As he passed by Aleutian, Mathias stopped to see how his "shining light" was doing. The echidna was still out from the anesthetic. Shaking his head in seeing Aleutian the way he was, again, Mathias continued forward to do checks on the torpedoes. He hated seeing his adopted son vulnerable as he was now. The Dingo longed prayed to never see that sight again; the first time nearly drove him and his late wife to pieces.

Tails went back to work on the broken piece of vintage electronics, placing the prongs of the volt meter to check the resistors, capacitors and diodes throughout all eight circuit boards. Sonic and Doctor Quack were busy making a late afternoon meal: chili dogs, and cold cuts. Mathias will soon learn not to have Sonic help cook. Espio went to the command compartment to check on their position. They were moving faster than what Mathias had thought due to a fast moving current in the straight. Dusk would soon be coming, and they were on the verge of coming out between the two islands.

Vector jammed to his tunes, and Mighty was given another tour from Mathias about the torpedoes as he went along with his checks, all the while Knuckles kept Rotor company in the engine room. The walrus was adjusting faster than anyone else was on the voyage. He loved working on machines and he had two giant powerful ones at his disposal. Knuckles was going around and listening to Rotor explain how the engines worked, plus helping Rotor do inspections of key components. Knuckles soon became mesmerized when he looked down at the two silver shafts that turned the sub's propellers when the crossed into the electric motor room. He began to have a profound respect for those, including his brother, who had operated this crude boat.

The Plunger was relatively cruising along at peace, everyone finding something to do to pass the time. As for the only two females onboard; they were getting fresh air and trying not to start a fight...but that peace wasn't going to last long:

"See anything?" asked Julie-Su, spying through her binoculars out to the starboard side of the sub, scanning her view at the open sea. She soon looked to the sky and scanned it as well. Mathias had told her to be watchful of the skies...that was where the real threat could come from.

Rogue slyly smiled under her black binoculars. "Nope, except for some echidna;" and that had more than one meaning for Rogue. As bored as she was, she figured she could jerk Julie's chain for at least some amusement.

"You stay away from my Knuckles. You hear me!"

"His heart isn't totally set, you know."

"SHUT-UP before I throw you overboard!" Julie-Su screamed, turning and marching right up to Rogue's face.

"You can try, girl, but I'll just keep flying back," Rogue giggled, adding fuel to the fire.

Seeing this, Julie played her next card. "The way you were looking at Aleutian, I'd say you'd want him instead."

"What can I say, I'm a sucker for hansom echidnas. I may get both of them you know," Rogue replied with a twinkle.

* * *

Aleutian slowly opened his heavy eyes. His head was aching and he could feel that he was shaking a little. The high pitched rumbling of the engines reverberated through his body; the scent of diesel fuel overlapping with the smell of... _"chili? What possessed Mathias to cook Chili for breakfast?"_ he pondered to himself in a daze. He slowly opened his eyes further as thoughts of spicy beans, upset stomach, and "heartburn city" fell onto his groggy mind.

He slowly rose his head up from the bunk, rotating his torso around to extend his shoeless feet down to the cold metal floor. The sheets fell to the floor as he sat himself up, rubbing his head with his right hand. As he gained his balance, he shakingly stood up but almost fell to the floor instantly. He quickly grabbed the wall beside him, balancing himself through the lite pitching of the sub. When Aleutian finally began to walk, he felt a tightness around the left side of his back. He'd recognized the felling in an instant; someone had put stitches in his back, and when he looked around behind him, he could partly see the white dressing taped to his back. He felt around the wound and realized that the protruding shards of metal were not there anymore, and to his great delight, there wasn't any pain except for a tad bit of soreness.

"What time is it?" he softly asked himself aloud, looking for the nearest clock. He found it on the right wall of the cabin, the hands reading; "Five-twenty!" he exclaimed in a groggy voice. Placing his free hand over his head, instinctively trying to sooth the pounding from the ambient noise, he started to wonder what had happened to him.

He took his first wobbling steps towards the open curtained doorway, almost losing his balance and falling again. With another dragging step, he moved forward, gaining balance as he did. As he stepped through the opening and looked around, the dazed echidna noticed Sonic walking up with a chili-dog in his hand and a bite already taken out of it.

"Hey, it's awake!" Sonic greeted. "Want some?" the hedgehog gestured, holding the foul smelling morsel up to Aleutian's nose.

Aleutian threw his head back, pushing Sonic's arms away with his bare hands. "No thanks, not my cup of tea I'm afraid."

Sonic shrugged his shoulders. "Your loss," he said, stepping through the doorway and grabbing a seat at the small desk that was posted against the wall.

Aleutian turned and walked into his cabin. He slide his boots on and grabbed his jacket, placing it across his right shoulder. He noticing that his bed had fresh sheets on it as he turned to leave his room. Still, with seeing that, Aleutian still couldn't remember as to what had happened that morning.

He then walked towards the aft of the sub, his head spinning with every step that he took, his legs feeling as if they were stepping on soft mattresses. The rolling boat made it somewhat difficult for him to keep his equilibrium together as he passed into the next compartment.

As he passed by Dr. Quack, the duck dropped his spreading knife and called to Aleutian. "Hey, you need to be back in bed until that stuff wears off!"

"What stuff?" Aleutian groaned flatly.

"I injected you with a shot to put you out. I had to remove those pieces from your back," he replied, pointing to the dressing on Aleutians lower backside. "Let me have a look at my work real quick,"he said as he tugged at Aleutian's arm, pulling him towards his one good eye. He slowly lifted the flap of the dressing, exposing the fast healing injury. His "magic spray" was working wonders. The wound was slowly producing new skin and covering up the wound so that it wouldn't scar.

Quack drew a pair of medical scissors from his white lab coat, and trimmed the stitches away from Aleutian's body. "There, don't need those anymore. Before you go to sleep," he began, replacing the dressing and tape, "we'll change out your dressings and spray you down for extra measure."

Aleutian looked at the Doctor with puzzlement. His mind was still too foggy to comprehend what Dr. Quack was getting at. "Whatever you say Doc," he replied with a nod as he held his aching head up.

He continued down the compartment, slinging his brown jacket on during the short trek. When he passed Tails, his mind stopped when he noticed the radar unit in pieces with the young fox soldering components to one of the circuit boards.

"Hey, back from the dead," Tails joyfully commented, looking up from his work.

"Yea, to find out that the radar _is_. What's up with it?" the tired echidna asked, bracing himself against the bulkhead with his head.

"I traced it down to a few capacitors that were bad. I'll have it back together in no time, Aleutian."

"Okay. Check the rectifier tubes while you're at it. Those tend to go bad the quickest," Aleutian instructed. He patted Tails on the shoulder with a brief smile before he ducked through the small hole that lead to command room.

Within a few steps, he was met by Espio. "Where are we?" Aleutian asked, almost yawning.

"Coming out between the two islands. We'll be starting our next turn in about three hours."

"Very well..."Aleutian's ears perked up to the high pitched argument that filtered down through the open hatch from the bridge. He eerily looked at Espio. "Who's on watch?" he asked, his voice rasing an octave.

"That would be Julie-Su and Rogue," Espio replied, looking up at the piped covered ceiling.

"I take it they don't like each other that much?" the echidna suggested with his right eye squinting.

"Nope...and it has something to do with your brother's heart."

Aleutian just smirked at the idea, the deep cut on his face wrinkling with it. Then the voices up top became louder and more hostile:

"You no good sleez," shrilled Julie-Su towards the white bat, followed by a fast moving fist. Aleutian instantly knew what was going on without even having to use his touch of sight and he was going to put a stop to it. Lives depended on it.

Knuckles crawled through the hatchway just in time to see his brother climb up the ladder to the bridge. _"Good, he needs the fresh air. Shoot...so do I."_ he smiled to himself. As he took one step closer, he soon heard the screaming match as it echoed its way down and over the loud roar of the twin diesels. _"Ah, oh,"_ he snuffed as he rolled eyes.

Aleutian reached the attack compartment of the coning tower, turned to the last ladder, and climbed up it to reach the open air that was filled with the high pitched shouting match. Reaching up with his right hand, Aleutian grabbed a bar and lifted himself up, slowly working his shaky self up to the bridge. When his head poked out through the opening, he saw shoes and boots shuffling all around him. Rogues right boot almost collided with his already aching head.

"WHAT IS GOING ON!!?" he barked and snarled at the two girls.

His voice echoed over the rumbling sub, reaching the ears of Tails, Espio, and Knuckles, who was switching into his protective, jealous boyfriend mode. Tails reached back behind him and swatted Vector's arm, stirring the crocodile from his musical trance. He turned around in time to noticed the orange fox getting up from his seat and navigating through the hatchway. Following him through the compartment, Vector caught the next part of Aleutian's rant.

Aleutian stood up from the small hole and went right between the feuding girls, separating them from each other. "I wake up to find the radar is busted, that we're about to breakout to the open sea, and then hearing you two fighting and NOT doing your JOBS!" This got Knuckles starting up the ladder.

"She started it," Julie-Su pointed to Rogue who was to the left of Aleutian.

"Well, _I'm_ finishing it," he growled in a low voice, turning his head right towards the pink echidna, then left towards the white and tan bat, his eyes squinting as his dreads flung around from the assaulting wind. His voice made the hairs on Julie and Rogue's back stand on end.

"_Ooww," _gestured Espio without making a sound. Tails sunk his head down with a grin on his face. Knuckles noticed this and made his thoughts known to his friends with a stare of discontent. Before he started back up the ladder, Knuckles stopped when Aleutian started making good points.

"With you two fighting, you're not looking out for us, okay?" he seethed out, the scar on his snout bringing his point home. "We are practically blind without out our radar, and with you two not doing your jobs, we are completely blind. One of Eggman's flying bots could sneak up behind us and sink us...all because of a playground fight! We are the slowest thing on the face of Mobius right now, and unfortunately, the slowest thing just happens to be the best thing to win a battle that has terrible odds. So do your JOBS!" Aleutian finished, jabbing his index finger at the deck. "Unbelievable!" he growled next.

Aleutian slowly began to make his way down the hatch, giving out his last order. "You two are up here until Tails fixes the radar...got it?"

The two girls nodded sharply and turned away from each other, gazing back out to the open sea. As the simmering echidna made his way down, Rogue looked through her binoculars, listening to the clunks of Aleutian's boots as he started to work his way down. _"I like him already,"_ she smirked to herself.

She panned left across the horizon when her eyes spotted two objects that weren't part of the waving ocean. "Ahh, look at the little boats," she giggled.

"What boats!?" Aleutian jolted up with a sharp voice, peering his head back up through the hatch; his eyes wide.

"Why the two little white ones over yonder," Rogue said as she pointed slightly to the left, "they're so cute..."

Aleutian jumped up and grabbed the glasses from Rogue, that were fastened around her neck by a plastic lanyard, and peered through them. Rogue hunched forward as Aleutian drug her over to view at what she saw.

"Ah...NUTS!" he shrilled, flinging the glasses back to Rogue with frustration. "See what I mean. You two need to be on top of what we're doing..."

"...They're just boats Aleutian," Julie-Su calmly interjected, also seeing the small boat shaped masts on the horizon.

Aleutian moved to the center of the bridge and opened the lens covers of the bridge's viewfinder. What he saw through the high powered lenses made him kick into overdrive, the adrenalin flushing his drowsy state away. "They're not boats, they're ships!" he elaborated.

He quickly reached over to the intercom mike, picked it up, and pressed the switch. "CRASH DIVE...CRASH DIVE!!"he yelled into it; holding the last syllable out. "Rotor, all head flank, shut down the engines and close the exhaust ports as fast as you can!" Replacing the radio and pushing the button that closed the instrument panel from the outside world, Aleutian turned to the two stunned girls. "Down below, now...make it fast, or we're going to be very wet!"

Mathias rushed aft as fast as he could through the compartments, dodging obstacles as he limbered through with his frail body. His blood began to race when he heard the engines crunching out more rpms as they were driven to full power before Rotor had shut them down.

Reaching the command compartment, he ducked his head before getting creamed by Vector's fast moving arms as the croc turned the venting valves, "Good, as soon as you get those opened, get yourself to the headphones," he ordered.

Vector stopped when the valves ceased to move any further and maneuvered through the hatch to his post. Sitting down and snagging the headphones from the desk beside him, he noticed Doctor Quack closing the open hatch to the outside world before he maneuvered back over to the stove to shut off the burners off. Then the duck placed the pans in the cabinets that were lined with guards to keep the contents from being tossed around. Some of the pans still had food simmering inside of them as Quack closed the small doors.

Aleutian reached up and slammed the bridge hatch down, spinning the locking hand wheel with all his might. When it suddenly stopped, he slid down the first ladder and waited for Rogue to climb down the last before he plummeted to the floor.

Knuckles reached up to the red levers and forced them down, two at a time. The loud gurgling sound of the water entering into the tanks echoed as he slammed the last two handles down. The sound became pronounced when the twin heavy engines stopped. Rotor had shut them down fast and was operating the vent covers by himself as the boat began to submerge. The electric motors whined as they turned, their batteries discharging as they operated. Rotor was still at awe, seeing the twin, silver metal shafts, counter-rotating at high revolutions under his feet through the graded metal floor as he stood by the throttle levers.

Aleutian slid down the last ladder, his hands squeaking along the metal bars and his boots clunking on the metal deck. "Main vents?" he inquired as he moved over to the control panel.

"Opened!" shouted Espio, slamming the two wheels to the stops on the aft bulkhead.

Aleutian noticed that Rogue and Julie-Su were just standing in the center of the compartment, taking up space. He grabbed them by the arms and thrusted them towards the dive controls. "You two, take the dive planes," placing Rogue at the bow planes and Julie at the stern.

"What do I do?" cried Julie.

"I'll guide them!" came Tails, scooting over beside Aleutian.

"Great. Make your depth to thirteen meters, thirty degrees down bubble!" Aleutian then turned to Mathias who was already grabbing an overhead pipe to hold on to. "Two ships heading south, close to each other, bearing about three-four-zero, angle's about seventy-five, maybe eighty." he gasped, referring to the angle of the ships relative to the Plunger.

"I'd say they have us on their radar," guessed Mathias.

"I'd venture you're right...but they won't for long," Aleutian snorted. He too grabbed on to something to hold on too.

"What's going on!?" demanded Sonic as he passed through the hatch.

"Hold onto something, Blue!" replied Knuckles, sensing the roller coaster ride that they were about to undertake.

Tails got Rogue and Julie-Su going, telling them which way to turn the wheels. As they spun the controls, the Plunger began a step angled dive, it's bow dipping below the surface as its stern rose up. Watching the needle pass over six meters, Tails fixated his sight on the bubble gauge that soon passed over the twenty mark, "Okay start easing your planes a little," he calmly said.

They soon passed through eight meters. Pencils, maps, and Dr. Quack's coffee mug started sliding across the tables as the dive angle increased to twenty-five degrees. The crash of the mug startled Mathias and Aleutian. They peered down and starred through the hatch. Quack just looked through it with grimaced face. _"Sorry," _he pleaded with his face.

"Passing through ten meters you guys!" noted Tails.

"Start leveling her out. Shut main vents and ballast. I need you on the helm Tails," Aleutian calmly ordered, his voice soothing the tension inside the compartment.

Mathias maneuvered over to the navigation computer and turned the automatic-pilot off as Knuckles, Espio and Sonic went to work on the valves. For now, everything needed to be controlled by hand. He then reached over and activated the targeting computer and watched it power up.

"We're leveled," announced Tails.

Aleutian stepped over to the periscope and activated the electric motor with a lever right beside the metal shaft. It raised the scope up on two cables; piercing through the surface of the lightly choppy seas. Pulling down two handles on the side, Aleutian pressed his head against the black rubber eyepiece, squinting his left eye as he peered through the periscope with his right.

"Maintain your current heading Tails," Mathias ordered. "We're steady at sixty-six Aleutian," confirming the direction of travel.

"Thanks Mathias," Aleutian said, magnifying the image of the first ship to the right. He paused, looking away from the scope and back at it again. "The first ship is a ship-of-war; guns and missiles are on her decks." Aleutian then panned the periscope over to the next one. "It seems its running escort for the second one."

"Vector, what do you hear?" called out Mathias as he peered through the hatch under Sonic's fast moving arms that were closing the vents.

"I hear something, but I don't know how much to describe it. Sounds like engines doing the 'two-step.'"

"How many?" came Aleutian.

Vector turned the wheel from side to side, picking out the sounds. "I just hear two, bro!"

"Very well, keep a track on them and plug them into to the targeting computer," ordered Aleutian.

Espio gathered himself after closing the valves on his side of the compartment and locked stepped to the computer. He brought out Nicole and placed her beside him. Finding a cable on the wall, he plugged her into the Plunger's computer. He then found the special pencil and stood at the ready. Soon, the sound contacts appeared on the screen that faced up towards the ceiling.

"Okay, now we know what they are...who they are is my question?" observed Mathias beside Aleutian.

Flipping more switches, Aleutian magnified the image again, closely eyeing the deck of the lead ship. It's bow was steeply curved, making waves as it sliced its way across the ocean with a small rocking motion. On the forward deck were two turrets, stacked like steps, but only having one cannon to each. Behind them was the main portion of the ship, three decks standing from the main deck. The very top had a single smoke stack with assorted poles sticking out from the top of the roof with a radar dish turning in circles. Then his eyes caught movement on the bottom deck, two Eggbots appeared from the lower deck, getting the ship's weapons ready.

"I've just spotted two bots on the first ship," Aleutian's, calm voice sent shudders amongst the crew.

He then panned the periscope back to the cargo ship; it was slugging against the water at a feverish rate. The main deck had a single cannon on top of the bow, and behind that was a crane. The bridge ran at the center of the ship. It too had only one smoke stack and antennas, but the stern had strange looking racks on the deck. "Mathias, take a look at this."

Mathias peered into the scope, seeing what Aleutian saw. "I'd say those are missile racks, dear boy."

Aleutian looked up at the base of the periscope. It had a red arrow that went around a brass washer with numbers inscribed on it. It was the ships compass; the bow marking zero. "Fifteen degrees left Tails, please," he calmly said.

As Tails turned the helm, Mathias let Aleutian continue tracking with the scope. Pressing a red button on the right handle that activated the range finder on the scope, an invisible laser beam shot towards the lead ship and bounced back; reading fifty-five hundred meters and lessening as it appeared on the screen display on the scope. The number soon popped up over the first targeted ship on Espio's screen. Soon, twenty-eight appeared beside it.

"What's this," the Chameleon asked.

"Distance and speed," came Aleutian, "these guys are in a hurry."

He marked the second ship then walked over to Espio. Marking the direction that the lead ship was heading, he turned to the map beside him. "Looks like they are making their way to Old Robotropolis for some reason," Aleutian noted, tracing their course and guessing their next turn was going to be under the peninsula of the Mobian Jungle.

"Straighten her up now, Tails," he ordered next. Tails turned the helm back and marked his heading.

"Want my advice, Aleutian?" came Mathias as he placed his hand over Aleutian's shoulder; "we let them go, we might need the torpedoes for our main goal."

Aleutian nodded, "True."

Then, Sonic chimed in from behind them. "But we don't know what they've got. They could be haulin' a doomsday weapon for all we know."

"Point well taken Sonic," Aleutian replied. He leaned back against the navigation computer and gathered thoughts with his hands tucked under his shoulders. They had nine torpedoes, two were the best that they had and he definitely wanted to save those. But it could take more than the two to sink the Dreadbot, plus, he had to maneuver around a little to get the second one off from the rear tube. Then again, he could drop two or three into the sides of the approaching ships and hope that one: they didn't need more, and two: that the thing they were hunting for wasn't heavily armored...or very lucky.

But Sonic made a great point, they didn't know what they were carrying. They could be coming back from a resupply mission or bringing back the spoils of war to feed Eggman's war-machine.

Aleutian looked over at Mathias, his hand rubbing his chin. "Are we still under the rules of unrestrictive warfare?" The way Aleutian said it, soft and cool, made every's hairs stand on end.

Mathias nodded. "That we still are; even since the day I plucked you from Davy Jones."

Aleutian, his face without emotion, walked over to the left wall, reached up to the microphone, and called to the torpedo room. "You back there Mighty?"

"Enjoying the ride," the Armadillo replied, seeming to be the only person with high spirts at the moment.

"Good," Aleutian sighed, "open tubes one, two and three, and be at the ready." With that, he replaced the microphone and looked over at Sonic who was about to explode from knowing what they were about to do. "Sonic, get yourself back there and help him."

"No prob' man!" Sonic bursted, pulling a hard devious smile across his face.

"I'm no man Hedgehog, just a battered echidna," Aleutian replied, drawing the same smile. _"Yes Aleutian, it's okay to smile now,"_ he thought to himself.

Aleutian went back the periscope, panning to the ship of war that had just brought its weapons online. Aleutian was positive that they hadn't gotten a visual on them before they went under, but their radar had told them that something was out there, and they were looking for it.

Mathias steadily walked up behind Aleutian. "So how are you going to do this?"

"I was hoping you would?" Aleutian asked behind the lens.

"Sorry my dear boy. My eyes and reflexes aren't the same anymore. I don't know how much good I'll be."

Aleutian looked over his shoulder with a comforting smile. "Oh, come on..."

"It's your patrol my friend. It's your fight, and so, it's your shot," Mathias solemnly said.

Aleutian solidly nodded. He figured there was an underlying message but he would figure it out later. Gazing back through the scope, Aleutian gave the next set of instructions. "Set up for tube three."

Mathias walked over to Espio and pointed to the third green light in a series of five at the top of the screen. "Touch that one and wait," he said.

Espio took the pen and touched the green circle. It turned blue and back to green with "tube three" reading on the left side of the black screen in white.

"Target the right ship," Aleutian said quickly.

Mathias then pointed at the white boat shaped figure that was to the right of another on the screen. "Touch that one."

Espio moved the pen over and tapped the screen. All of a sudden, mechanical snaps ringed inside the boat. Looking down, he saw that the readout of the speed of the ship was holding, along with it's course, but the range was closing to fifty-one hundred meters.

Back in the torpedo room, Mighty and Sonic spun the handles that opened the torpedo doors. They started with tubes one and two; Mighty on one, Sonic on the latter. When the handles ceased to go no further, they both worked tube three at the lower left.

"Doors opened," radioed Sonic almost out of breath.

"Tubes one and two on the last ship," came Aleutian, Sonic's voice trailing in his mind as he eyed on the cargo ship.

Espio tapped the corresponding green lights, then tapped the target to the left. Mighty and Sonic jumped when more mechanical snaps cracked from the brass hatch covers.

"Have a look Mathias," requested Aleutian. Mathias slowly worked his way over to the periscope and peered through, noticing the cargo ship's draft was low.

"She is carrying, possibly a ten meter draft line. From the looks, I'd say six, maybe seven thousand tons." Rotating the scope, he studied the escort ship. With a long moments look he ordered; "Magnetic pistol on tube three, Espio." The old Dingo felt himself come alive as his dormant fighting spirit awoke from its long two year slumber.

Espio looked up at the dials and switches on the wall, followed the tube three row down, and then flipped a lever that crossed from "I" (meaning impact detonation,) to "M" (meaning magnetic detonation.) Soon, Sonic and Mighty heard the adjustments from the last two tubes.

"Done!" Espio announced.

"Depth at four and a half meters, same tube," came back Mathias, looking back at Rogue and Julie, making sure that they didn't think he met them.

Espio followed with his eyes down until he saw the depth dial on the wall. He rotated it clockwise to the desired reading. "Check!" he confirmed.

Mathias now turned to Aleutian. "Go make sure that our boys are ready to shoot."

Aleutian nodded and moved quickly through the hatches, still feeling the effects of the anesthetic as he leaped over the bulkheads.

Ducking through the last one, he saw Sonic and Mighty looking at each other with puzzled faces. "Everything set back here?" he asked.

"Yea," replied Sonic nervously, " but, what's with the noise, man?"

"That's the torpedoes setting themselves," explained Aleutian as he stepped forward. "We plug in the numbers and they automatically make the adjustments. Makes it easier for us," he said, looking over the gauges and valves in and around the tubes.

"Tubes one and two impact pistols, depths, five meters, Espio," said Mathias, turning and watching Espy do his work. The chameleon gave him a thumbs up when he was done.

"Good, set the gyro on tube one at one and a half degrees left, and tube two to the right at the same mark."

Espio reached up to the gyro knobs and turned them. As the settings were made, more noises came from the tubes. Sonic was in awe at what was going on.

"See the red switch covers on the box to the upper left of you," Mathias asked Espy.

"Yea!"

"Flip them up and flip the switches under them up. Just for the first three."

Espy flipped the covers up, knowing which tube they belonged to, and flipped the silver switches under them.

Instead of snaps, shunts filled the diesel hanging air in the torpedo room, "What was that!?" shrilled Sonic, his voice getting higher in pitch with every new noise.

"Espio just took the internal safeties off," said the hard working echidna in a low voice. "We now have hot weapons."

When Aleutian finished his checks, he stood up from his shaking knees and grabbed the radio. "We're ready to fire Mathias."

"Good, get back here on the double," the Dingo barked through the radio. He then placed his eye back over the eye piece. "Prepare to fire tubes one and two!" he ordered through the mike in his hand.

Mighty placed both hands over the red levers of the two tubes, ready to press them when told too. Instantly, his hands began to sweat as his breathing increased from the excitement of about to be launching two giant weapons right at one of Eggman's devices; something he has been wanting to do for a long time.

"Fire," Mathias ordered in a soft growl, his right eye twitching with the order.

Mighty pressed down on the levers. Before he and Sonic knew it, their hands were over their ears from the screaming sound that would have made a banshee jealous. Aleutian was half way back when Mathias gave the order and he knew something was dreadfully wrong right off. It wasn't the loud screams of the torpedoes that lead him to that conclusion, but he didn't feel a certain recoil from a the torpedoes leaving the tubes. He turned right around and rushed back, sliding through the hatches, his dreads flapping behind him over his shoulders.

Practically diving into the room, the woozy echidna quickly made his way to the center of the tubes. Founding the valves that he just remembered that he didn't check, Aleutian reached up and pulled them to the floor. Air instantly filled the lines and into the tubes. Quickly reaching over Mighty's head, he pressed both levers down, giving a quick pause to tube one before firing it. A hard kick, as if a whale was playing soccer with the Plunger, rocked the rattled occupants inside.

The burst of the air shot the torpedoes out of their holes. Bubbles trailed behind them as their battery powered motors gave propulsion to the counter-rotating propellers. They cruised straight ahead for a few meters before their gyros began to take over. The first torpedo out of the shoot started to drift left and the second began to drift right, both settling into their programed depths.

"Fire tube three!" shouted Mathias at the radio.

Sonic reached below and pressed the lever this time on the bottom left torpedo tube. The kick still surprised him, almost knocking him back on his rear.

Aleutian grabbed the handle of tube one and began cranking it over, closing the torpedo door. Sonic and Mighty began doing the same without a word with the other two.

Espio watched on the screen as three red dashes raced towards the two white markers. He was startled by Nicole's voice from beside him. "Two minutes until impact, Espio, on the first two torpedoes. The last one is about six seconds ahead."

"Why's that Mathias?" he asked.

"The two ships are coming at us at an angle; the escort is closer to us than the cargo ship. I was hoping to have timed both shots to hit each ship at the same time," Mathias replied, scolding himself for being rusty, which was why he wanted Aleutian to do this.

Back in the torpedo room, Aleutian had flushed out the water from the flooded tubes and was now opening the hatches. Mighty had a torpedo already slung across his arms. He lifted it up and began sliding it into the hole with Sonic guiding it in. Aleutian then took the metal clip from the back of the torpedo with the wire attached to it, and placed it on the hook behind the torpedo hatch, removing the other clip and wire from the previous, and now, fast traveling torpedo.

With Aleutian's hands free, Mighty closed the hatch, locking it shut. "Next one," the armadillo barked out with a smile.

* * *

Two Eggbots emerged from inside of the middle deck of the cargo ship to the late afternoon sun. They marched towards the bow of the ship, their hydraulic limbs drowning out the sound of the churning wakes. Their commanding-bot of the ship had sent them out to use their enhanced visual scanners to search for a possible radar contact that had vanished off their screen. They flickered their sensors, adjusting the range and color of their view, rotating their permanently smiling heads around.

"The radar possibly caught a ghost echo across the beam," said one of the bots, looking to its duplicate self in front of it.

"Our escort caught the same signal," the other replied, "keep scanning!"

So it did, adjusting the sensor sensitivity. When the bot activated the florescent vision in its module, it picked out two lines coming towards them at a slight angle. They showed up as two green streaks that rippled in an odd, bubbly way.

"I have something. Check the three o'clock in the florescent mode," the droid beeped.

Seeing the same thing coming right at them, the other bot began running X-ray scans. Unfortunately for its maker, it couldn't detect what the streaks were under the water. The tossing water produced fuzz on its sensors. The bot switched back to the regular color mode, seeing the streaks in plain sight as the bubbling foam approached them.

"Best estimate...a school of fast moving marine life," the bot concluded to the other bot behind it.

"Master will soon deal with them after we wipe out the Mobians and Humans. What we have on board is something that Eggman needs to ensure victory. A school of fish isn't going to stop the hull of this ship." Getting the confirmation signal from the other Eggbot, it moved closer to the rail and watched as the two white lines raced closer. But then something caught its visor. The bot pivoted its head to the left and witnessed another white streak that was heading towards their escort, which was only 100 yards in front of them.

"_Yes, you scaled biological menaces, you'll be next."_ the machine transmitted to itself with its binary code. The bot pivoted its torso around towards the escort ship, watching the creatures try to fruitlessly attack a metal war machine, tracing their white bubbling wake to...

The blast blew the bot in front of it off its metal feet and into it. With the only glimpse it could acquire, the bot saw the escort ship hunch up at the center, snapping the upper decks in two as water erupted on both sides of the ship. It looked as if it had just sailed over an active volcano as it blew its top with an inferno that engulfed the sides of the metal skin. The sound from the explosion would have deafened a mere mortal creature. Then the sound changed to a muffled splash. His view was blanketed with a blue image that soon produced bubbles. The sensors in the Eggbot's system confirmed that it was overboard and in the water, sinking fast.

The round bot rotated its head left then right, seeing if it could grab a hold of something to save itself from termination by the sea. It heard the moans of the escort ship's hull buckling as the bot sank deeper in the dark blue water. It then picked up the sounds of bulkheads collapsing as the escort ship met its death. But between the sounds of the escort ship breaking up and the sound of water passing over its small microphones, the Eggbot began to faintly pick out a high pitched warbled scream to its right. The bot rotated its head quickly to see what could be possibly making the high pitched scream. It stopped suddenly when its visor fixated on a long brown tube with a red, rounded tip coming right at it. Moving its mechanical arms as fast as it could, the Eggbot (with its permanent smile,) desperately paddled itself away from getting directly hit by whatever the long cylindrical thing was.

The Eggbot rotated it's head around, watching as the torpedo screamed right in front of it and impacted the barnacle covered hu...

* * *

Mathias watched as two giant walls of water climbed into the air, covering the decks of the cargo vessel. The explosion soon reverberated throughout the sub, rattling its occupants a second time.

"What was that?" asked a frightened Julie-Su. Noises echoing in a tin can with no windows was starting to make her flip-out.

Mathias chuckled as he spoke. "Our torpedoes finding their marks. The cargo ship is starting to list and we broke the back of the escort, splitting her right in two." He watched with a gleam in his eye as the front section of the warship slipped beneath the waves, the bow turning up in the air as it did. The rear soon did the same, its twin propellers still spinning as the stern disappeared under the churning water. Even with the distance being a little over a mile away now, they could still hear the moans of the buckling bulkheads of the sinking warship.

Fire and smoke blanketed the sky from it, but Mathias was sure that Aurora would forgive them for that. With his smile broadening, he saw fires erupting on the decks of the cargo ship.

Aleutian was coming out of the torpedo room when he heard the spread find their marks. He jumped in rejoice, clubbing the overhead pipes as he made his way back, figuring Sonic and Mighty had the reloading down to an art by now.

He crossed into living quarters, then into the sonar and radar station, stopping when he saw Vector passed out with his headsets still over his ears. "Hey, Vector, you okay..."

Vector turned his head over at Aleutian and mumbled as if he were drunk. "Pretty lights bro! Hey Knuckles, I see three of ya'...and where did you get the scars man... they look righteous."

Aleutian began to suspect that Vector was suffering from asphyxiation. He showed the signs of someone having too little oxygen in their blood, and what he gathered of Vector's intelligence and the size of his brain that exhumed his train of thoughts, Aleutian was pretty sure Vector's brain needed lots of oxygen to function properly.

He started looking around to see what might be causing Vector's problem before he called for Dr. Quack. He didn't see any open flames, nor did he notice that the stove was left on. Then he sniffed the air. A smell registered in his brain that made his heart jump. Aleutian quickly turned around, his eyes stopping at the gauges on the wall. He felt a wave of heat roll off his back when he viewed the hydrogen meter...it was half way into the red.

"BLOW BALLAST! BLOW BALLAST, NOW! We need to get up top FAST!!" he shouted through the hatch.

Rogue and Julie-Su began turning the wheels, already knowing which way was up. Mathias rushed up beside them, grabbing a handwheel that was beside the compressed air meter and yanked it over. Air forcefully rushed into the ballast tanks, blowing the water that was inside of them back out to sea.

"What about the bots that are up there?" shouted Tails, his head on a swivel, watching everything that was going on around him.

"I rather deal with them then get flashed fried down here," replied Aleutian coming up behind him, breathing hard as he spoke.

"Nobody create a spark until we swap out the air," came Mathias, sensing why Aleutian wanted up top so fast. The old Dingo remembered quite vividly of a flash fire when the lead acid batteries he was testing, blew up after being subjected to a hard discharge...like right now. He just realized the motors were still at ahead flank. Aleutian forgot to have Rotor lower them back to full or at least standard running order after the dive. Since the batteries hadn't been ran in such a long time, the lead plates might have warped; and if that was the case, they weren't up to the torture of running the throttles to the stops without the diesels providing the backup power. Yes, they were working, but their battery life was a little shorter and caused more of a hydrogen build up that would kill the boat faster than an air-bot attack. The lack of oxygen wasn't the problem, unless, you were like Vector and sat right on top of the forward battery compartment, but it was the threat that a flash fire could be ignited. With a simple arc of static electricity from a finger, and with the chemistry of fire feeding on oxygen, they would be charred in an instant and they wouldn't know what had hit them.

Then it hit Mathias. He reached over and grabbed the mike off the wall while holding on to the cables of the periscope. "Rotor, you okay back there?"

"Kinda scared back here. Hey, have you looked at the hydrogen..."

"...Yes Rotor we have, as soon as we get up top, open the hatch and bring the throttles back down," ordered Mathias. "How's your gauges looking anyways?"

"Sitting about halfway, but not in the red."

"Good, start the engines as soon as you can."

The Plunger rose out from the depths like a kid releasing an empty soda bottle from his bath. The bow slammed down hard on the surface, creating a nice splash as it did so. As soon as Mathias and Aleutian heard the sounds of the waves lapping over the hull and feeling the boat leveling somewhat out, they started going for hatches, opening them as fast as they could to the outside air. Mathias popped the bridge cover up and slowly got himself up to see their handiwork. All that was left of the warship was black smoke as fire floated on the surface. The cargo ship on the other hand was still chugging along but listing steeply over.

Aleutian operated the forward hatch and lifted it over his head. The fresh air was now circulating through the boat. In a couple of seconds, the build up of the hydrogen gases would be out of the boat.

"Okay Rotor, crank up the engines and slow us back down to ahead full," radioed Mathias to the engine compartment. Rotor was already opening the exhaust vents and the rear hatch when Mathias came through on the speaker.

Aleutian called to Dr. Quack from the cabin compartment and pointed him towards Vector, telling him what was happening. Quack soon left the compartment to help the dopy crocodile.

"Keep her steady Tails..." Aleutian was almost knocked off his feet when the Plunger shook violently from side to side. Knuckles wasn't so lucky, catching himself before he slammed his head on the metal floor. Aleutian was still clutching to the wires that held the periscope when another violent shunt followed the first, shaking the dishes in the cabinets in the galley.

"Man the deck gun!" ordered Mathias from the bridge, his voice echoing through the narrow opening.

"Tails, zig zag us until we tell ya' to stop!" Aleutian barked. "Knuckles, come with me, now!"

Knuckles did as his brother ordered, but his attitude wasn't sitting well with the request. "You know, you could ask..." he was cut off when he was slammed to the wall from another violent jerk of the sub.

"Now's NOT the time to be nice brother!" Aleutian exclaimed, holding his balance up against the opposite wall. He turned to the radio that hovered over his heard and pressed the intercom button. "Sonic, Julie-Su...get up to the deck gun on the double and get it ready."

After Aleutian depressed the button, he continued aft, climbing through the hatch that lead into the supply compartment. He lifted up the metal graded floor and flung it against the wall; crashing against it with a tiny sound. Reaching down with both hands, the hard-breathing echidna brought up a long, black cylindrical object. It had a diameter of about five inches and had four neon green slits down the side. Aleutian produced two more of the black tubes and handed one to Knuckles. "Okay, to the forward hatch. Lets go."

With Knuckles leading the way this time, he turned back to his brother as he made his way through the command compartment. "What are these?" he asked, heaving the black metal cylinders through the hatchways.

"Battery cells for the gun. Less talk, more moving," he fired back as another jolt almost sent Aleutian to the ground. He balanced himself before tumbling over his cumbersome legs.

When the two brothers got to the forward hatch, Sonic and Julie-Su were very hesitant to go up the ladder.

"We're not going up there?" scorned Julie-Su, her arms crossed and he feet trembling.

"Oh yes we are, now move," replied Aleutian, keeping his voice as cool as possible. He gave Sonic the other battery cell and juggled the other one around his left his arm as he made his way up.

Knuckles soon followed. His determined thoughts soon dissipated when his head peered over the opening. Water sprayed in his face when the Plunger's bow sunk low, clipping a wave as it humped over the swell. Knuckles saw the burning ship leaning heavily on its side through the pitching bow of the sub, but his heart pounded harder when he saw a flash from the ship's cannon. The red plasma bolt raked across the sky, impacting the churning sea a hundred yards to the left of the sub. Water, followed by steam, shot up in the air. The sound of the report from the ship's cannon soon made the reality of what was occurring hit home to Knuckles...they were in a full blown shooting battle.

Knuckles reached down and grabbed his equal by the hand and pulled her up.

"Knuckles..."

"...You're the best shot we've got. Its your turn now," Knuckles pleaded.

Aleutian removed the metal muzzle cap that was fitted with a small rope at the end, and flung it over the barrel. He then raced to the turret section and unlocked the cannon from the stirrups that were anchored to the deck. The plasma cannon soon swayed from the tossing of the sea and the swaying of the zig-zagging sub. Knuckles went passed him, along with Julie-Su, to the rear of the gun. Sonic soon followed with the other battery cell clutched under his arm.

"Brace yourselves!" warned Mathias. It was just in time, another bolt ripped the water in front of them. Spray from the impact showered the four, who were fighting the tossing and turning boat to stay up right.

Aleutian operated the handle at the rear of the gun and opened the breach. He then slammed his battery into place, and closed it. The powering-up process of the gun started instantly.

Julie-Su found herself in the hot seat, literally. She placed herself in the gunner's seat and quickly studied the controls of the whining cannon. There were two pedals at her feet, a double hand crank in front of her arms, and a viewfinder in front of her head. Pressing her face against the padded scope, she pressed the pedals down, first left, then right. Then she operated the handles in front of her, finding that rolling back the handles made the muzzle point up in the air, and rolling forward produced the opposite effect.

With the controls down, she quickly began to place a bead on the enemy ship. "Where do you want the shots?" she asked.

"Hold your horses first, girl," came Aleutian. He looked up at Mathias who was still starring hard through the binoculars. "Need a right side angle, Mathias."

Mathias nodded and looked down through the hatchway. "Left full rudder, Tails!"

The fox turned the helm as fast as he could, watching as their course raced by via the compass.

"Rudder at mid-ships!" Mathias ordered next.

"What?" cried Tails, not knowing what mid-ships meant.

"Straighten us up!" the Dingo clarified as he looked down the hatch. He felt the sub instantly straighten up as the kit fox turned the helm.

Julie-Su had the right pedal to the floor, the motor of the turret groaning as it moved. She depressed it when her sights were squarely on the ship. "Now what?" she asked.

"See the compartment up top that looks like it has hair?" asked Aleutian.

"Yeah!" she replied, increasing the magnification of the view finder with the knobs that were alined on the right side.

"Aim right at it."

The pink echidna rolled the handles back, watching for her marks on the range and windage optics of the sight. Satisfied with herself, she gave Aleutian a thumbs up with her head never leaving the sight.

"The trigger is the lever at your left side. It's a two-stage trigger so release the slack then press on afterwards," Aleutian instructed.

Fingering her way around the controls, she felt the metal bar around her hand. Pressing down firmly, Julie-Su took out the slack of the first stage. She felt the tension increase as the lever settled to the second stage...then she pressed it down harder.

The gun erupted with a harsh thunder that shook the wooden deck beneath their feet. The muzzle blast blew the dreads of the three echidnas back along with the smell of ozone from the shot. Sonic just covered his pointed ears.

Mathias traced the green plasma round, watching it race closer to the engaging ship. It impacted dead on at the radio shack, the antennas scattering from the blast. _"Wow, first time and first shot!" _he chuckled to himself.

"Okay, go for their teeth, girl," ordered Aleutian, standing clear from the recoil of the deck gun.

Julie-Su now positioned her sights on the cargo ship's only gun. She could see two of Eggman's robots readying their gun for another slew of shots at them. It was too late. She slammed the lever down, giving life to the cannon once more. Sonic watched the barrel slide back from the recoil that followed the report of the gun. He was trying hard not to laugh hysterically.

The two bots were blown off the boat when Julie-Su's shot hit home. The cannon on board the cargo ship was pulverized from the plasma energy. Sonic, Knuckles, and Aleutian cheered at the yellow and orange effect of Julie's dead on accuracy.

"Okay Julie-Su, aim below the water line a little and rake the gun across their hull. Your doing great!" said Aleutian, reaching around and patting her on the back.

Julie-Su lowered the muzzle down with the hand cranks, and slammed the trigger down and held it. The gun's computer automatically fired as soon it sensed the recoil ceasing. It touched off six plasma bolts in under four seconds. As she fired, Julie-Su pressed down on the left pedal gently, causing the gun to pivot slowly to the left. She stopped when the cannon ceased to fire.

Explosions rocked the ship as the six plasma beams crashed just under the water line and impacted on the submerged hull, causing more flooding that drove the ship further over on its side.

Aleutian opened the breach and pressed a release button at the top on the gun. The black battery cell popped out, clanging against the wooden deck as the white smoking battery rolled off into the deep, producing steam as it hit the water. Sonic then reared up and drove his cell in the breach and stepped back as Aleutian closed the chamber.

"Keep at it, Julie-Su," Knuckles encouraged from behind her.

Again, she slammed the trigger down and pressed the left foot pedal ever so slightly. Eight rounds jumped from the gun and creamed the side of the ship. When the gun fell silent, she leaned back and rubbed her face, clearing the sweat from her eyes. The heat from the weapon was building up and she was feeling the full force of it.

Aleutian was about to pop the next battery in when he was surprised by a huge explosion. He peered over to the side of the cannon and saw their target lighting up in an inferno of fire. It then sharply listed over onto its side, water churning up as it did, and began to slide slowly into the depths.

Mathias called everyone up to the deck to witness one of Eggman's tools being sent to the deep and out of the fight. Rogue, Tails and Espio appeared over the bridge while Rotor climbed up through the rear hatch and watched the red hull of the white ship vanishing below the waves. Mathias then grabbed the microphone from the panel in front of him. "Doctor!"

Quack gave the oxygen mask to Vector to hold and reached up to the intercom button. "Yes, Mathias?"

"Make a feast fit for a King tonight, for we dine like one in celebration!" Mathias was about to replace the microphone when a particle fell from one of his molars, tasting of chili. "Oh and Doctor, keep a certain blue hedgehog out of the galley, please."

* * *

I know what some of you are saying to yourselves: Eggman should know about the Plunger...ya, ya, ya. But, did the eager thought of what the bots were going to get make you smile? How about the escort getting shot up like that in her mid-section?

* * *


	9. The Path to Closure

* * *

Okay, the chapters get shorter...yeehaw. I put a little romance in here, but the end result isn't what people might expect. 

Disclaimer: I observe the rights of the creators of the characters from this wonderful comic and game.

Enjoy **  
**

* * *

**The Path to Closure**

by: Mauser

Passing into the next time zone, the trek shortened an hour to an already long day. The sun was halfway down on the western horizon, painting the clouds pink and orange along with the very light choppy sea. For Knuckles, the view was humbling as he rode the sea atop the grey conning tower. He leaned over the anti-aircraft gun, resting his feet as much as possible, but still keeping his balance. His arms were crossed and placed over the covered magazine wells, snuggling his chin in the folds of his arms.

"_Hard to believe that there's a war going on. People dying and suffering, but yet, from here, the world looks at peace."_ But then Knuckles realized something, "he" himself, was bread for war. His abilities, his hands, his thoughts...all were conceived to do harm to someone or something. So, what was the irony in what he was seeing and feeling? He couldn't explain it, nor did he care to at that moment. What he did figure out was why his brother, his lost brother in more ways than one, seemed to be happy out here. Knuckles hadn't seen any bitter sadness or cold hatred from Aleutian since they left. With the demise of two of Eggman's ships, he saw his sprits rise ten fold. Knuckles could positively see the changes in his brother.

Aleutian was acting way different than two days ago. The scars still cut through Knuckles' emotions, but his face wasn't looking as if he wanted to kill something at that instant. Aleutian was starting to walk with a stride now, almost a swagger. His tail was waving side to side, not trailing along the ground. Something was definitely changing in his cold, battered brother, and Knuckles knew it was for the supreme better. _"Locke was right, he needs me, and I need him."_ Knuckles shook his head and corrected himself, _"More like what Mathias said, 'He needs us, and we need him.'"_

Knuckles caught a whiff from the simmering food down below. He smelled onions and steak; then the breeze kicked up, transporting the smell of seafood into his nose. Then that all went away when the fumes of the diesel fuel came up from the open hatch, overpowering his senses.

Knuckles took one lasting look at the horizon, his locks flowing past his muzzle from the assaulting wind . He watched as the sun slowly concealed itself within the cover of darkness. The stars, little by little, showing their twinkling selves as the sky went from pink, to blue; to black.

* * *

Closing the blue notebook, Aleutian rubbed his eyes with both hands; the feeling was ecstacy to his weary mind. He had just finished writing about all that had happened: the reunion with Mathias, the boat, the journey so far, and the sinking of two of Eggman's ships. Scribing out his daily and sometimes weekly life was not old, nor new. A good friend, and mentor he pointed out to himself, had told him it was therapy. He could write down what he had seen, thought, and felt, and hopefully come back with a different perspective from what he had done. And for Aleutian, it worked more ways than one. The book he had now was his fifth and he was almost halfway through it. 

Looking at his cup, the urge to fill it again came over him. Tea happened to be his drink of choice and his taste buds were craving for more of the dark orange beverage. What made him like the drink so much was that he could drink at any temperature, (except freezing of course,) the chemical make up of the leaves made the decision of flight or fight easier under extreme circumstances, and spiritually, for Aleutian; "_Better to drink from leaves that are fed by the sun and water." _

He reached for his white cup and stood up from the chair, gradually making his way to the open curtained doorway. As he neared the edge of the metal frame, Rogue bumped into him as she tried to go in. "I'm sorry, didn't see you comin' there, hunk!" she said, batting her eyes at Aleutian, throwing out signals to him; it all went over his head...but something else didn't.

"Come in and close the curtains, please," he said.

Rogue caught it; it was the first time he asked for something nicely. She did as she was asked, stepping through and drawing the curtains closed with her white gloved hands.

Aleutian stepped back towards the table. Putting his glass down on it, he turned around to face Rogue, before sitting down on the left corner of the maple table, moving his tail around so he wouldn't pinch it.

He placed his hands in his pockets of his jacket and looked down at the rough metal floor. "I'm sorry that I snapped at you and Julie-Su the way I did," he apologized, raising his head up as he drew in his next breath. Rogue just kept smiling as he spoke, her ears enjoying his kind baritone voice. "It wasn't really me talking, but more of the anaesthetic that Dr. Quack put me under," he explained, after finding out what happened to him when Mathias told him about his morning episode. It still was a fog on his mind. He continued after taking in a deep breath. "I'm sorry and it was wrong."

Rogue took two steps closer towards Aleutian, herself gloomy over the words. "No, you were right. We could have gotten us all killed by not doing what we were supposed to be doing..."

Aleutian stopped her, standing up as he spoke with his arm out. "But I really could have killed us today. Yes, you two missed the ships; but, you two would've eventually spotted them and we would have been under the waves in no time. I, on the other hand, almost sank us, and about turned us into crispy critters. I kept the motors running at ahead flank, which produced hydrogen gasses that could have caught fire in an instant," Aleutian explained. "Fire" and the idea of being under water if it had happened was all Rogue got; "And I didn't check the propulsion valves to the torpedoes. That lapse on my part, produced two 'hot run' torpedoes, and those could have exploded and sank us in an instant. If anyone should be yelled at, it should be me."

"But you're weren't yourself, like you said handsome..."

"...But I have been doing this kind of fighting for a long time and I have no excuse. This was your first time...for the both of you," he added, remember that there was two females he let his anger loose upon.

Rogue gracefully walked right up to him, reaching her right hand out and touching his face; the side opposite of his terrible blemishes. "You need to stop beating yourself up," she softly whispered. "What were you crying about, Aleutian?" she asked next.

Aleutian felt a cool surge go through him like the morning wind. He opened his mouth and lightly gasped in the diesel filled air. The touch of her silk gloves sent a shiver down his back that he hadn't felt in a long time. That feeling soon turned to disloyalty. He still loved his soul-equal, even if she wasn't there. Then Rogue's question brought back his dream, and the rest of the early morning. He almost collapsed to the floor when he remembered seeing Emi-La's face, then seeing himself crying and screaming on the floor from that morning.

Reaching up and grabbing Rogue's gentle hand, he brought it down and clasped it with his other hand under her palm, and looked at her as if he was going to weep in her arms, but he stopped himself before he did. "I'm not ready," the sentence coming out as a quiver in his voice. He swallowed hard, gaining his emotions back. "It's been real hard for me to move on from the past..."

Rogue shushed him by placing her finger over his lips. "You found me once, I'm sure a guy like you can find me again," she smartly nudged. She turned and slowly walked out of the cabin, throwing her hips out, hoping to entice the dumbfounded echidna.

"_Geeze, the girl I about shot; correction, stunned, is coming on to me."_ Her face still flashed in his mind with the front and rear sights of his blaster centering on her chest, still felling the movement of his finger removing the last safety; by placing it on the trigger. _"What is this world coming too. It's already in shambles!"_

"Chow time!" Sonic said, speeding towards the dinning table that was just outside the door. The curtains fluttered from the hedgehog's dash as his stomach guided him to the bench.

Espio had moved the table back some to give leg room to those who might be sitting on the bench. Mathias removed some chairs in the supply compartment and had Tails bring them forward. The table was set when Aleutian refilled his cup with some cold sweet tea, noticing each spot on the table had a white plate, silver wear, and fine linen napkins as he poured his drink. The glasses ranged in all shapes and sizes, but they were filled halfway with the choice drink that was requested, sloshing from the slight roll of the Plunger. Mashed potatoes, corn, and assorted fruits (grapes for one) were at the centered of the long wooden table. Large chunks of steak, fish, and even a plate of eggs, littered around the edges. At the top edge of each setting plate was a bowl that was covered by a slab of melting mozzarella cheese. Steam billowed from the table.

Everyone grabbed their seats: Knuckles on the forward corner bench of the table followed by Julie-Su to his right. Sonic, Tails, Mighty and Vector snaked around the bench towards the back with Rogue sitting with her back against the rear wall facing forward towards the torpedo room. And to her delight, Aleutian was standing beside her, waiting to grab his seat. Espio and Rotor had the two front chairs beside Mathias, who was also standing. Doctor Quack was positioned by Mathias's right, and was sitting down and about to dig in.

The Chameleon saw what was happening. He jabbed Rotor's shoulder and stood up, clutching his drink in his right hand as he did. Soon, one by one, everyone did the same, their faces showing nervousness as they stood up.

Mathias extended his right arm out, holding his drink high, as if giving a salute:

"To fallen friends and fellow fighters. May we envy them, for they are at peace and have seen the end of war!" Mathias said in a commanding voice.

Aleutian bowed his head slightly, Emi-La's face flashed in his mind from Mathias's salute.

Then in unison, the fearless Mobians raised their glasses in salute and swallowed down their drinks.

"In the words of the late Chester Drake," Aleutian began, his voice steadfast with out emotions as he nodded his glass at Mathias. The Dingo nodding his head in response before Aleutian continued; "Let's dig in!"

As the meal progressed, so did the uplifting conversations. Most told jokes, while others sat back in listened. As Rogue watched Aleutian tackle the steak and eggs. She still couldn't get over him from apologizing. "Eggs..." she asked, hoping to spark a little conversation of her own.

"..Ssteak and eggs," Aleutian replied after swallowing a morsel down, "breakfast for champions," he smiled at her.

She took a quick look around the table with a puzzled smile before asking her next thought. "But, we're having dinner."

Aleutian looked over at her and smirked. "I'm getting a head start," he slyly said, nodding on the last syllable. A low wave of laughter flowed across the table with Rogue blushing at the comment, then continued with her fish and potatoes.

Mathias stood up and went back towards the radio room, coming back with the record player and a black vinyl disk on top of it. Opening the curtains to one of the rooms, he placed the turntable on the table, and brought it closer before turning the machine on. He gently placed the needle on the revolving black record and heard the black pops register through the speaker. As he sat back down, tucking his tropical shirt away from the seat, sounds of the first notes by a clarinet section began the slow and graceful piece of Pachelbel's "Cannon." Ears perked up when the sound filtered over the loud engines.

"What _is_ this?" snorted Vector.

"I have you know Vector; it's dinner music, done by a great classical artist many centuries ago," Mathias shrewdly replied, "and if you don't like it my reptilian friend...get your own boat and your own record player."

Again, laughter echoed throughout the boat. Vector just shook his head as he went back to his fish and steak.

"So good doctor, what is this that I just burned my tongue with?" Mathias asked as he placed his spoon back in the bowl. He tasted the onions and the sourdough bread that floated among the cheese.

"That is french onion soup. Antoine showed how to make this one day for my family. We had the stuff to make it, and you wanted to eat like a king," the doc remarked, shrugging his shoulders.

"Antoine?" Mathias paused with a puzzled look at his guest; it was his boat after all, "that wouldn't be General D'Coolette's son, would it?"

Tails practically jumped from the bench. "You knew Antoine's father?"

"Yes!" the Dingo replied, catching the "knew" part in the reply "how is he by chance?"

"He passed on about a week ago," Sonic solemnly said.

"Oh," Mathias said sadly, "terrible news. Only met him on a couple of occasions, but liked every greeting." He then looked squarely at Tails, just realizing who he resembled. "I take it young man, that 'Tails' is your nickname?"

"Yes sir! I'm Miles 'Tails' Prower."

A smile lite up across the old Dingo's face. "I knew your folks, son. Especially your Dad."

"Hey Drake, change 'knew' to it's present state!" exclaimed Sonic.

Mathias's mouth dropped. "Your folks are still alive!?" directing his the question back at Tails.

"Yep, we brought them back from Argenthum not to long ago."

Mathias looked to Aleutian with a puzzled look. "Argenth-what?"

Tails, began the long story about what had happened, Sonic adding little tid-bits here and there for dramatic purposes. When the two finished, Mathias was ecstatic. "I haven't seen him in ages. I wonder if Amadeus still remembers me. I have a picture of me and him, Tails. It was taken the day I was knighted by King Maximillian. Oh, we'd trade war stories here and there. He would tell me the Great War's progress on land, and every time he told me about defeat, I'd be motivated to sink more ships."

Espio turned to the Dingo. "How many ships have you sunk since you began?"

"I don't count ships. There is a number, but, I've always gone by 'tonnage.' It's not about counting the ships you sink, but how much you deprive the enemy. That is what helps win the battles. What supplies were lost to the enemy by us, meant that to our friends on the shooting side on the land, they had better odds of living and possibly winning," Mathias said, almost giving a speech. "So far, I think we're up to half ah million tons?" he guessed, looking over at Aleutian.

"Somewhere around there, Captain." the echidna answered modestly.

"Speaking of which, today was no exception. You all have helped yourselves greatly by the sinking of those vessels. Sonic was right, it could have been anything on board, but whatever it was, it's now Davy Jones's problem. And Sonic," smiled Mathias, "I do know your family." Sonic gulped as Mathias continued. "Your father was my best mate for awhile until I left to the East. When I heard of his fate, plus your moms, I wept for days."

"They're still alive and kicking along with my uncle Chuck; in the flesh. Except my dad, but his mind is still in tacked and for me...that's what counts," Sonic gracefully stated.

"Here-here," saluted Aleutian with his glass, "freewill is everything."

Mathias continued on: "Your Uncle Charles was of great help to me and the Plunger. Without him, our first dive would've been it."

"Why isn't the Plunger powered by the Rings?" came Tails.

"I told Charles that they could be better used on the land than here. After all, they were still comparatively new when this rust bucket came along. But she's a good rust bucket."

Rotor spoke next; "So what are you gonna do when we get back?"

"Rest, dig out my old dress uniform, and pay a visit. I would definitely like to see the King again, and my old friends of course," Mathias said with a twinkle.

"Yeah, you definitely don't want to go looking like you just came back from surfin'," Sonic pointed out, observing the flower patterned shirt.

"'Tiny bubbles...'" Vector started to sing. The galley exploded with hoots and laughs.

Looking at Aleutian with Rogue by his side, Mathias smiled internally. Of the joys of the day, seeing the boy laugh and being happy again, himself again, almost made him shed a tear. But not in front of guests.

"So, Mathias," came Julie-Su, "how did you come to fight for King Acorn, you being a Dingo and all?" she asked, putting the shoe on the other foot.

Mathias squinted his lips before going deeper in the past. "My parents found a way to leave the zone that the Dingos where sent to. They grew tired of the warmongering, so we left when I was still a pup. I grew older, learning all I could, and ended up marring my Faith. Then Chester came along and helped complicate things during my studies. But he became the least of my worries when war found me. I was afraid that my home and family could be gone in an instant, so I chose sides and I helped King Acorn find a weapon to help find victory. Since my kind likes to copy weapons from others, I did the same..."

The table suddenly began to move side to side. Hands went everywhere to hold on to the dishes and glasses as the Plunger swayed, the inertia pressing everyone to the left side of the boat. Rogue was enjoying it as Aleutian pressed up against her shoulder.

"What's going on?" asked Julie-Su nervously.

Mathias calmly spoke as he smiled. "We are turning further to the north. We are well on our way."

* * *

The rest of the night progressed without incident, except for Aleutian. Dr. Quack removed the original dressing, making the sitting Echidna wince as he pulled the tape off. He made him wince again as he applied the "magic spray;" the cold propellent tickling Aleutian. Aleutian was glad, for once, to hear Dr. Quack say that his wound wasn't going to scar. 

The lights were dimmed and the alarms were set to awake the dead in case of an emergency or radar contact. Mathias went around the cabins, checking to make sure everyone was sleeping peacefully before he turned in himself. To his surprise though, Aleutian was still up, his head deep in his blue notebook, lit up by the overhead lamp under Rogue's bunk. Sliding through the curtains, Mathias approached the center table. He grabbed a chair from under it and gently placed it by Aleutian's bedside. Before sitting down, he looked over the top bunk at Rogue; she was sound asleep.

He gently sat down, doing his best not to make the chair creek. Aleutian looked over from his journal and smirked at Mathias. "I'm a little too old to be tucked in, you know. Besides, we don't have any books for bedtime stories," he grinned.

"Now that's the Aleutian I remember. Not some black dressed hit-man, roaming around Mobius with an axe to grind." Mathias whispered with excitement.

"Yea, I am feeling better just being here, doing this again."

"I know," he softly said, patting Aleutian's shoulder.

Aleutian finished his letter that he wrote to Emi-La, a letter he wrote to her as if she were still alive. Commitment ran deep through the bloodline of Edmund. Partly for what they were born to do, but for Aleutian, it was the love he shared with Emi-La; that was his. He made a choice after he had met her by not going back home and defending the Emerald and his kind. His commitment went to her, and it was something that Emee didn't take for granted when she was alive. She cherished and respected Aleutian so much for that, and for the scarred boy; missing that trust and love was the hardest thing for him.

He started to realize after reading his journals that the past two years, and with them the things he had done in the first months of that dark span, made him wonder if Aurora was going to forgive him. He helped certain figures depart the world in very violent ways, and sometimes silently too. But reflecting on the reason why he did it seemed so selfish to him. Aleutian now realized that he was lost at the time and still was at that hour. Maybe now he was finding himself. _"Realizing what you have done wrong is a good start,"_ he commended to himself.

"You know, that doc can cook, but she beats him hands down," jabbed Mathias, referring to the times when Emi-La was onboard. But his smile soon faded after he realized of what he just brought forth. To his surprise though, Aleutian softly chuckled, but Mathias saw that soon fade with tears streaming down over his deep fissures and his quivering mouth. Aleutian reached up with his freehand and whipped his tears away.

"I miss her Mathias. Oh, for the love of Aurora I miss her so much," he gently cried out, being mindful of Rogue's dreams.

Mathias reached over and embraced the grieving Guardian. "We all do, Aleutian. We all do," tears soon dropped down from his eyes as well, but he still kept his smile. "Everyone who met her and saw you two together, knew there was something special between you two. And they miss her as well. But you still have a life...you can move on..."

"...I can't Mathias. It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do," Aleutian whimpered out.

"If Aurora had given her one last breath...one last precious breath, she would have told you to move on with your life. When my Faith passed on, I grew after her death. When Chester died, Faith and I moved on with you in his stead. You helped me and Faith through our toughest times. You helped us find closure over our son, because we had you to raise. It was selfish on our part to keep you from your real family, but we needed you."

Grabbing Mathias's hand that laid over his birthright, Aleutian drew in a long shaky, teary breath. "You're like a father to me Mathias," he softly let out, "I still question why you didn't send me back to this day, even though I know why..."

"...Because you know a real father would have sent you back in a heartbeat. I'm more of a mentor if anything, but yet, I still felt like I was raising a son." He then leaned over to Aleutian's ear; "And in many ways, you are.

"Like I said dear boy, you have a full life ahead of you. I may only have ten more years before Aurora calls for me," Mathias softly finished leaning back in his seat.

Aleutian whipped his tears away again before speaking. "Did I ever tell you how long I might live?"

"No...you spoke of your heritage and your duties, but never that."

"My bloodline lives for centuries Mathias..._centuries_." The last word coming out almost as a gasp.

"All the more reason to pick yourself up and move on. You can start with the girl above us. She fancies you..."

"...I know, it took me a while to get..."

"...No, my dear boy you don't...she stayed with you while you were out. She felt through your dreads, held you tight when the sub dived down below the waves so the doc could operate on you...she stayed with you for over two hours."

Aleutian just starred at the smiling Dingo. _"She stayed?"_ he thought to himself.

Patting him on his head and sliding his fingers through Aleutian's locks, feeling one end before the others as he traced over the stud lock, Mathias smiled before leaving him. "...Let her go, friend...let her go."

Aleutian shook his head as Mathias left, the curtains flapping in the induced air flow of the open hatches as the dingo made his way out. His eyes glistened in the white light from his tears as Aleutian reached up to turn it off, darkening the room.

"...I can't," he whispered.

But Rogue heard it; the whole thing, and she was desperately trying not to cry to where Aleutian might hear her. It had been a long time since she has heard a grown boy cry.

* * *

Half a world away, it was still daylight in New Robotropolis, and Snively wasn't busy with much of anything. The bald Overlander, except for a few hairs on his head, and with a nose that could poke someone's eye out, was having a little fun with a small puzzle game on his hand-held computer. But his attention to it abruptly vanished when a distress signal popped up on the monitor where he sitting. As he operated the keyboard to decode the ciphered message he took note of the current time, and the time that the message was sent, it was over four hours old. And the message itself didn't make much sense either; 

"_Taking on water, escort split in two by unknown reason. Spotted a..."_

Snivey fumbled his hand under his chin, trying to make sense of the broken message. Noticing from where the message originated, he clicked on the manifest list. It showed that it was loaded with new metal components, plundered weapons, and a load of fresh supplies, plus some new biological agents. He checked the departing point of the two vessels: a captured port near the Kingdom of Mercia.

"_No...it can't be. My plan had succeeded..."_ He shrugged his thought away as he went back to the message.

With not much else to go on, except for the tail end of the message that the bots did spot something, Snively typed in an order for two scout-bots to head towards where the distress signal had originated from, and to investigate as to what had happened. After sending the message, he went back to more important matters...solving his puzzle game.

* * *

So, what do you think of the way I have Mathias and Aleutian in this so far? Intresting isn't it. And what plan is Snively refering to? That little secret won't come out until three books from now. But I will give hints out though. 

Again, give me reviews, comments and suggestions. Don't be gentle.

* * *


	10. Sense This

* * *

This chapter has had a major face lift, more so in the beginning. I know you are peering down and see my main characters name drown out and italicized. Good. If you are woundering where I am taking this...that comes in the next book.

Again, I observe the orginial characters of Sonic the Hedgehog are not my own.

* * *

**Sense This**

by: Mauser

"_Allleeuuuttiiaann..."_

His eyes snapped open, only seeing the bottom of bunk that hung over his head. Everything came to him as a blur at first, but when his senses came to him, he joyfully but yet sadly remembered where he was. The smell of the diesel helped him along with his memories. He rubbed his head then face with his left hand, his right still holding his journal that he clung to through the night.

Aleutian gazed towards the curtains. They fluttered back and forth ever so slightly with the induced breeze of the open hatches and the ocean winds. He waited for what seemed like hours, staring hard at them, anticipating for her to come through them; smiling; waking him to the new day. But she never did this time.

He felt the warm echoes of her finely trimmed, but filled out body on his; lying on his chest with her elegant smile. Then came the memories of her lips touching his, the kiss she laid on him was all her own; not forceful nor subtle. He now longed for her sweet lips again, her head lying on his chest, tracing his birthright with her gentle, wondering fingers.

"_We should have your father marry us when we get back; only after we go and see your brother on the Island," _she told him two years ago, her soft voice echoing in him; tearing him up even further.

"_If my father wants me, he can come and..."_

Emi-La placed her index finger over his lips; driving her next point to him with her smile; _"Your anger towards him is only punishing your brother, Aleutian. Let's go and help your brother; don't make him fend for himself all the time."_

Aleutian remembered nodding to her with an even but defeated face; _"Okay..."_

But it never happened. His thoughts of meeting his brother with her by his side were swept away on the periled wings of war. He could only fathom now of what it would have been like; setting foot on the Island, his brother discovering them, and then telling Knuckles who they were. He wanted that to happen; not his brother knocking him out and only meeting a monster in a return.

Aleutian rolled over in his bunk, clutching his journal ever tighter against his chest as he stared at the metal hull of the sub with his glistening blue eyes. He realized as he started to cry that things were coming full circle: he was back on the boat that saved his life, his brother now with him on it, hoping both him and the Plunger could save his soul. He closed his eyes as tears fell from them; tracing a little ways on his long scar before they found paths on his broad but short muzzle. They shook free as he breathed in hard; panting the air out as he was overcome by his memories. He now wanted Knuckles to come through the curtains and see him as he was; hurt...filled with pain. Aleutian at that point was willing to open up to him now and more than ever. He prayed, begged to Aurora that Knuckles would come...but he never did.

When he opened his eyes finally, they were met by what felt like a burning white light to him. _"My Guardian,"_ he heard in his psyche as he gazed upon his white crest. It helped bring him back to reality and to what he was now doing, soothing his thoughts at that instant.

Aleutian cleared his face with his free hand and rolled over. He placed the journal on the bed as he sat up. Finding his socks and boots, he quickly put them on while still rubbing his sticky face. When he stood, he felt the slight roll of the Plunger making her way across the vast ocean. It helped mend his troubled mind. He took his time making his way to the curtained door, only taking one quick look at Rogue before he exited; she was sleeping, he could see the small of her back as she laid on her side.

Tails was busy putting breakfast together as Aleutian past him. "Mourning sunshine," the young fox greeted. Aleutian just shrugged at the comment. "I made a fresh kettle of tea for you, Mathias says it was what you liked."

"Thanks, Miles," Aleutian said with a slight quiver in his voice. He then retrieved a blue cup from the overhead cabinet and poured the steaming dark orange liquid into it. Tails could see Aleutian's face was a little red, and he guessed why when he heard his voice.

Passing through the radio compartment, Aleutian noticed that Mathias was already out of his bed and off somewhere, probably doing the morning system checks, making sure nothing had broken during the night. Taking a long pull from his glass, the sweetened tea lifted the fog of sleep from his head. Tails had brewed it just right. Smiling at the sensation, Aleutian ventured carefully up to the morning air, climbing the ladder with his cup in his left hand as he made his way to the bridge. Reaching the top, he saw Julie-Su looking towards the front, her hair and dreads flowing with the breeze, minus the metal lock that stood fast from the rest.

"Morning, Julie," he said with a shaky, but friendly voice from the ladder. "Where's my brother?" As he climbed up from the hatch, his sight answered his question. Knuckles was sitting cross legged between the deck gun and a "T" shaped device that was the hydrophone; facing the mid mourning sun.

"Meditating. He does it to clear his head before doing anything else in the mourning," she replied smiling.

"This is the best place to do it," he said, sipping his warm drink; "No distractions, no smog, except for the exhaust and all. But where he is at right now, he won't notice. It's perfect out here."

"I take it you do the same?"

"Not lately," Aleutian replied, placing his hands over the metal side of the bridge and balancing his drink between his knuckles. "I used to take long walks through the forest to think. Sometimes I'd never come home for days, but what Knuckles is doing...yes I have. Been needing to for quite sometime."

After he explained himself to her, Aleutian turned and gave her the same apologetic speech as he did to Rogue the night before. Julie accepted it but she also said she was wrong in not doing her job as well.

"That's what I'm really liking about 'this' mission, we are really having to work together out here," she commented, smiling at the morning sun.

Aleutian smiled as well, "Yea," he breathed out, turning his visual attention to his brother, "the Plunger is very good at strengthening the bonds of teamwork. If y'all thought you were close before you left; wait till you get back. You will start depending on each other more, and in a good way."

"And it is definitely helping you," Julie-Su softly fired back, "you're totally different than you were at Knothole from the days before. In a way you're like your brother..."

"...No, we are not alike," he gently shot back at her.

"Yes you are. When I first met Knux, he was somewhat of a loner. I see some of the old him in you, but you are turning around faster than he did."

Aleutian nodded his head in agreement, but sighed afterwards; "I did some things that I'm not proud of."

"We all have Aleutian..."

"...No," he stated, cutting her off as he shook his head. "I've done some really bad things in the past two years that I don't want to expose my brother to. I didn't do them out of reason, but out of sheer retribution. From what I know of him, he doesn't need to know that he can cross that line."

"Line...oh, he about crossed that a year ago, Aleutian!" she retorted quickly. "Your _brother_ went on a power trip that made him turn green. He then aligned with the Dark Legion and Dimitri and ended up getting killed over it."

Aleutian turned his stun face. "That's what he met by the Avatar! You mean he died and came back to life?"

Julie-Su nodded her head. "Yep, thanks to his powers that he didn't fully understand yet, he got killed because he didn't know where the line was."

Aleutian nodded his eye brows up at the comment, only wishing now that he kept Emi-La's promise sooner. Then he put the shoe on the other foot, "So, where did you learn to shoot like that?"

Julie-Su smiled at the question before replying in her calm voice. "I used to be with the other side of your family. I was a solider with the Dark Legion and they trained me to shoot that good. Again we're not all proud of what we have done," she said, turning back to Aleutian with a smirk. "And you're not so bad yourself. There must of been about three inches that separated me and Blackjack."

"Practice makes perfect," Aleutian grimaced, before downing another gulp of his tea.

"And it saved my furred skin. Blackjack and I have tangled before, but you made us equal that day. I've never thanked you for what you did."

"Save it, I was just doing my duties."

"And what are those duties...or do you even know anymore?" Julie-Su asked, lowering her voice to get her point across.

Aleutian was speechless as he looked beyond the swelling bow.

* * *

Lien-Da was calm and cool on the outside, but inside, she was her enraged self. Her black top was open just enough to expose her chest to catch any male's eye, her long leather pants formed tightly around her impressive figure; it seemed to hold her rage in. Her dread locks were long, reaching down to the small of her back. On the left side of her head, a lone metal dread hung from where she had offered her real one up to join the Dark Legion. Most people stood away from her. Her temper and devious thoughts demanded it.

But along side her, Locke wasn't too far off on that same path. "Only a hundred and fifty!?" he bellowed, "I was expecting a lot more to go...a lot more!"

A long line of echidnas reached beyond their sight, heading down to the lower parts of the levitating island through a lighted cave. The smell of the damp limestone grinded into Locke's mind. The stench resembled how he felt about the whole plan now. First, they told the council about "their" plan to get innocent people out of harms way, then the council heard the doctors and suppliers shout their concerns of the passage and how much they should take with them. But then the council "decided" to only send women and children and males that were too old to possible carry on during "TWO" wars. And now, the council has, "decided," that they are only going to send less than half of what Locke and Lien-Da had proposed. _"Way less!"_ he thought angrily,_ "How am I suppose to protect and save the lives of my own when a committee makes the decisions for me. Do they not trust the bloodline of Edmund anymore? The last time this happened, a dark army was formed."_ And now that army was at war with itself as people were still suffering from the previous one that still raged on.

"A hundred and fifty!" he shouted again, his anger coming out in the open.

"I'm sorry Locke, but it's the councils's decision..."

"...And they think they are some sort of god? Choosing who goes and how many of those should go? We need as many innocent people out of the picture as possible."

Lien-Da nodded her head, her arms still crossed. "I know we haven't stood together on many things, but I stand firm with you on this...but, we must follow," she angerily bit down.

"Unlike you, I don't follow orders as a solider."

She turned her head, her long locks sweeping her shoulders as she did. "Congratulations _Guardian_, you've just been drafted!" She stirred the ground with her shoe, looking down at her nervous progress. "Me and you, both, have seen war Locke," she began, looking up at the crossed Guardian, "between us, we have seen the horrors and the honors of battle. These politicians only see the possible outcome of risks, but we have seen what happens when risks are taken. Sometimes they're good, sometimes they're bad, but, us warriors can predict the outcome of the risk better than some chair jockeyed mouth can.

"But, on the other hand, this is a big risk we are taking. We could be sending a hundred and fifty to live far from this war, or, we could 'have' sent five hundred to their deaths. That is the way I look at it."

Locke gently nodded his head in understanding. "So, who's the Captain?"

"I picked a Legionnaire named Stenson. A 'down to Mobius' type of guy and a Field Marshall with us. He really thinks fast on his feet fast, and he did some operational planning for us awhile back. A true leader, Locke. Kind of a romantic such as yourself but with a dark edge; oddly being one of us."

Locke jerked his eyebrows up on that. "His thoughts on the boat.?"

"He says it's sea worthy. We loaded deck weapons on it, large and small arms, but the old clunker looks like it has seen better days."

"_You can say that again,"_ Locke scorned in the air. The vessel had been patched up after being on display, of all things, in a museum, then moved later to the Hidden Palace Zone when technology was banned. Why it went instead of staying on display was beyond Locke. Probably not to remind anyone that they needed technology after seeing the dry-docked wreck. But, it was now going to be put to good use, for once. Down at the very bottom of the island, a passerby, by sea, could see the under belly of the ship amidst the rocks. Hopefully, that passerby wasn't in league with Eggman.

"By the way, he says they are about twelve hours ahead of schedule," informed Lien-Da after a long pause.

"Hmm, might be because we aren't loading five-hundred refugees on board," Locke sniffed, pushing his main reason of his bitter mood back across.

Lien-Da held her hand out to calm Locke. "But it means that we can safely lower them in the dead of night tomorrow morning, instead of doing it in the middle of the day like we original planed."

Again, Locke, did a single head nod. "I'll get myself prepared then and send our friends at Knothole a message of our progress. Hopefully the refugees won't be too much of burdened for them."

"Stenson says they can probably seek refuge in the Mobian Jungle, and possibly make it back, to get more."

"I hope he's right," Locke calmly said.

Lien-Da turned to leave the Guardian alone, he was already under enough pressure as it was. As she marched away, she saw a female Echidna fastly approaching her. As the girl walked right past her, she noticed that it was Lara-Le, and she looked more fumed than Lien-Da was. "Lady Lara..." Her greeting was cut short when Lara stormed right past her. Locke turned around slowly, sensing his former wife coming up behind him.

"_Sense this..."_ Lara-Le reached up with her right opened hand, and with a fierce rage burning in her eyes, she slapped Locke across his face. The load slap echoed inside the cave, grabbing Lien-Da's attention in an instant. She noticed Locke looked surprised as his head slowly turned back around.

"HOW COULD YOU!?" Lara-Le shouted as tears rained down from her eyes. She stepped closer and started pounder her fist against her former husband's chest. "To me, Locke...to me!?" Succumbing to her emotions, her knees buckled and she fell to the hard ground, dirt staining her yellow one piece robe. She pressed her hands over her face and cried over Locke's feet. Locke picked her off the ground and held her in his arms for awhile. "You lied to me about Aleutian. He wasn't dead and you've KNOWN IT!" she screamed, pounding her fists at Locke's chest again.

"I had to keep Knuckles from knowing about him! We went over this remember..."

"...And you used me again as your selfish tool! You took both of our boys away from me."

"It was HE who left..." Locke pointed out, raising his voice.

"...Because of YOU!" she thundered back at him. "You made him leave after you sealed his future to help Knuckles in his destiny. Ever thought about what it would have felt like to know that you weren't the favorite and your unborn brother was!" Lara-Le scorned out, her wet eyes burning hard into Locke's as he said nothing. "And now he comes back to me; with Knuckles practically dragging him here, he comes to me scarred... my baby boy, scarred!" she whimpered out into Locke's even face.

"He made his decision..."Locke spatted out.

"...And I feel as if I'm paying for it," she choked out. "Do you even know where he got those?"

Archimedes's voice echoed in Locke's mind when she asked the question; _"He's lost Locke, he is lost."_ And the Fire Ant didn't tell him anything after afterwards. In fact, he didn't see his old friend for days.

"No Lara, I don't. And that is the honest truth."

"Then you go and talk to your son. It looks as if he needs to open up to someone. I have seen the horrors of war thus far, but I think it should be you, since you've seen it first hand. You go and talk to him."

"But I have..."

"NO!" she screamed out at the top of her lungs in defiance. "Your duty is with _our_ son. I can baby him when he needs it, but I can't do it when he's filled with so much hate and pain. You need to talk to him; Guardian to Guardian; warrior to warrior; father to son."

Seeing her as she was, and her points being pushed to him with the pains of a crying Mother, Locke swallowed his pride._ "Okay Lara...you win this one,"_ Locke bowed his head, signifying the victor in the bitter argument, one that Lien-Da probably had never seen before.

Lara-Le's breathing stuttered as she tried to calm herself. She gained her composure a little and backed away from her former husband. "I'll never forgive you for this, Locke...Ever!" she whispered as she turned away him.

Locke watched as his former wife disappeared into the darkness, only muttering to himself as he looked hard at the ground:

"I expect you not to."

* * *

I always wanted to see Locke get slapped for how he has treated Knuckles (aside from this book.) When I created Aleutian and how I created him to make this plausable, it gave me lead way to do this chapter, but also helps set-up from the next thing I am looking to do. And of course I put Lien-Da in here so all you Dark Legion fans rejoice. I hope I nailed her character out as much as possible but still keeping it to the plan at hand. 

Please leave your comments at the door, and I will happily read them.


	11. Prophecies and Realities

* * *

I hope I havn't gotten y'all lost in time zones by now. But it helps in the story building, plus adds to the realism that I am seeking out of this. 

This chapter will have an unlikly hero in it. So stick around, it might surprise you.

Disclaimer: I observe the rights of the Sonic creators.

Enjoy!**  
**

* * *

**Prophecies and Realities**

by

Mauser

It was ten in the morning at Knothole and St. John found himself marching his way to the main dining hall of the castle, his shoulders back and holding two intercepted messages in his hand. One of the great secrets that Geoffrey had sworn to die over was that they had cracked Eggman's ciphers.

"_Why wasn't this information given to me sooner,"_ he grumbled to himself. _"Nine bloody hours old!"_

Making a hard right flank, he announced his presence to the convening leaders of Knothole as he entered the large, majestic dining hall. "Our fighters are terrorizing the sea, and I think they might have alerted Eggman because of it."

Amadeus face turned serious as he glanced up at St. John, interlacing his fingers. "Reasons, Commander?"

St. John passed the intercepted distress message from the cargo ship, plus the order for the two scouts to be sent to investigate. The one-eyed fox nodded his head upon reading the text. "But it says here that they were ordered to go investigate. By the time those scouts get there, all that is going to be left is the debris and an oil slick of the sunken ships." Amadeus then looked back over the first message. "Where is the rest...?"

"...It seemed to have been cut off for some reason."

"I'd venture Mathias took out the radio room with the cannon. That was common practice when they dealt with the Overlanders in the Great War. Course he had to have a good reason to surface to do that," explained Amadeus.

"What makes you think that they sunk the enemy boats?" asked Elias abruptly.

"If I still know that Dingo well, he sunk 'em." replied Chuck, sitting by Amadeus. Chuck had gone on one patrol during the Great War to see what it was like and if any improvements were needed for the boat. He never wanted to go on it again afterwards. He shuttered after he'd heard that his nephew, Sonic, was taking on a mission on that the same boat. He'd rather get robotized again than plunge to over a hundred and fifty meters again, just to avoid a series of magnesium depth charges that the Overlanders just "had" to test out on them. The moans of the sub still echoed in his head, along with the stomach turning smell.

"There's more, I'm afraid. I just received a message from the Guardian, Locke. They're moving up the departure of the refugees," announced St. John. "It's a definite sea voyage and they plan to depart tomorrow at oh-five-hundred."

"And where are our boyz and girlz et now?" came Antoine.

"I don't know. I could make an educated guess, but I'm afraid I'll be rather off."

"Then there is no time to lose," shot up Amadeus, "I'll personally send a message to our friends and make Mathias a little happy. Then we need to find out what we our going to do about are soon arriving guests. They don't need to run from a war and find themselves battling the same one when they get here."

"Make sure it's quick!" said St. John.

"I remember."

Chuck watched the Commander leave, pondering to himself of the great news. _"So, Mathias is still around and fighting the good fight. I must tell Jules."_

"Now...back to our original discussion..." said Elias.

* * *

"RADAR CONTACT!!" 

Aleutian heard the high pitched voice of Tails over the running engines that he was inspecting. He shot through the hatchways with his jacket flapping behind him, ducking from the engine room into the supply room, then swinging himself through the small hatchway into the command room. He passed by the periscope and squeezed through the same diameter hole at the other end of the room, leaning through it to get a good look at the round radar screen.

Tails was pointing at the green scope when Aleutian showed up under his arm. "Two blips on the screen!"

"I see em." Aleutian waited for the bright green line to circle around, keeping his eye on the two staggered, fading green dots. They reappeared when the radar passed over them, a half an inch further to the center.

"Scouts...and they're moving fast." replied Tails, remembering seeing a signature like this before. The two bots had to be cruising at over five-hundred miles per hour.

"Espio, we need your fancy computer!" cried out Aleutian towards th front.

Espio heard the shouting and was already moving to the rear from the torpedo room; following Mathias. The both of them ducked under the bulkheads as they passed through the hatchways. Rogue had to press herself up against the freezers as they made their way passed her down the long slender aisle.

Espio took out Nicole and placed her on the table in front of Tails, who was still looking up at the radar screen, and flipped up the small monitor. Looking down, he saw Aleutian looking over the table and up at the screen as well. "Okay, I'm here."

"Plug her into the Plunger and get her to scan for radio frequencies," ordered Mathias.

"I'm already doing that Mathias," came the female computer voice, her face appearing on the LCD screen.

Plugging in the same cable as before into her jack, Nicole's sensory range increased to seven miles in an instant. "I am picking up binary code traffic to the south west. They haven't transmitted our location yet, but they might be very soon."

"Can you jam the signals?" Aleutian asked before Mathias could.

"Yes, and I am doing so now. I am not a brainless bot like those of Eggman's."

"I never said you were," came back Aleutian, ducking away from the hatch and moving back to the rear.

Knuckles and Julie-Su were leaning out through the doorway to their cabin. They were chatting about what all had happened in the past couple of weeks, and of course about Aleutian, when they heard Tails yell out the contact. They figured it was best that they should stand back and watch.

"Julie," Mathias said, looking back at the two love birds, "we need you, again! Get up top to the anti-aircraft cannon and get it ready."

"Why don't we dive?" came Sonic as he came up beside the two echidnas?

"By the time we get going, they will be here, and they could do what they please with us. Man the gun!" Mathias then reached over to the mike. "Mighty, to the rear. We need you to help bring up battery cells."

It was now a race against time and speed. Aleutian reached the rear supply room and made short work of pulling the floor up. Beside the deck gun's battery cells were several large, black rectangular batteries.

Rotor came through the engine room and looked down at the magazine hold, seeing all the contents. "What's happening?" he asked

"We've picked up two bots on our radar and they're closing fast. Tails says that they could be scouts," Aleutian replied as he picked up one of the heavy cells with both hands. "I need you to put us at ahead flank, just in case we have to maneuver," he nodded with his eyes.

"Done!" said the walrus, racing back to push the two handles to the stops.

Mighty appeared and was handed two of the cells by Aleutian, who grunted with every one he picked up. He raced to the rear hatch and climbed up the ladder after he placed one of the bulky cells on the graded floor. Aleutian soon appeared and passed it up Mighty, then handed him two more. The armadillo turned and rushed them up to the two pedestaled bridge, handing them off to Vector and Sonic, who almost fell over after receiving the full weight when Mighty let go of it. He then went back to repeat the same chore, with Aleutian following him up to the bridge.

Knuckles had the magazine wells uncovered after untying the leather canvas that kept the water out while diving, while his brother and Mighty climbed up through the bars of the pedestals. Aleutian then reached over and pressed down on two levers that were between the wells. Two water tight, plastic covers popped out and fell to the deck of the bridge. Sonic reached up with one of the cells, that to him weighed a ton, and placed it inside the right well; Aleutian placed another one on the left. Then, with both hands, Aleutian pressed down on the battery. The cell snapped down snugly into place. Sonic grunted as he did the same, and heard gun power up the instant as his battery touched the circuit contacts. The high pitched whine resinated over the full throttled engines.

Julie soon placed herself behind the twin barreled gun, her shoulders pressing up against two brown leathered padded cushions. She reached down and grasped two handles that had the hooks of triggers in front of them. Between the batteries was her sight, a scope that showed a red holographic crosshair with an open circle in the center.

"Where are they!?" Aleutian asked over the noises, looking back at Knuckles.

"Still southwest, but we should have a visual soon," his brother replied, looking over his shoulder at the radar screen on the bridge's instrument panel.

Scanning the sky with the gun pivoting where she looked, Julie-Su caught a glimpse of two black smoke trails coming out from a heavy bank of cumulus clouds. She lined the sight up, leading the weapon as the two bots turned in. When they got closer, she recognized the twin turbine engine silhouettes of one of the classes that Eggman uses as fighters. But she didn't see any missiles between the engines and the fuselage, under the wings...and that was a great sign.

Aleutian watched as the slim fuselage bots raced closer. He placed his hand on Julie's shoulder. "Aim for the lead bot, you might be able to get the second with the explosion..."

"...In your dreams, boy. When I touch this thing off, those things are gonna scatter."

Only ignoring Aleutian's last bright idea, she put a bead on the led bot and pulled both triggers. The gun jumped with six green bolts tracing out from the double firing barrels in under three seconds, three from each barrel. After getting a feel of the recoil, she watched as her shots went under the incoming flying bot that she zeroed in on. She adjusted her aim a little higher and forced the triggers back again. The smell of heavy ozone reached back to her with every burst of energy.

Diving hard towards the water and sweeping to the right after Julie's first rounds missed, the two scouts tried to send a signal back to Eggman's base, but their transmission scanners picked up the jamming static. Then one of the bots watched as more green plasma bolts raced by its view finder.

"Start leading left!" came Aleutian, wishing he was behind the weapon now. He then grabbed the mike from the panel and pressed the switch. "Left full rudder Rogue!!"

Before Rogue turned the helm, Julie-Su touched a burst off from the rear gun. Out of the eight rounds that left barrels, four of them found their mark, exploding the trailing bot that was banking hard to the right. The underside exposed a perfect target for Julie-Su, who was starting to feel the rush of the fight. A burst of fire showed the end result of the hot bolts of energy hitting the battery and fuel compartments. Black smoke soon filled the sky after the fireball burned up. The smoldering hunk of metal traced down with the thick smoke in its wake, splashing into the warm East Ocean waters.

Watching it's wingbot disappear from it's sensors and the sky, in a split second, the scout bot snapped rolled to the left and began it's approach for an attack run on the Plunger.

Julie-Su fired once more, putting twelve more rounds total into the sky as the bot made its hard turn, missing with every shot. But then the weapon went dead. She squeezed the triggers again as she lead the bot to the right, but nothing happened. "I think I'm out, Aleutian?"

"Can't be, you still have another fifty charges left!"

"Well," she shouted back annoyed, "I'm pullin', and it an't' shootin'."

Knuckles starred at the incoming bot as it leveled out from it's turn and began to close the one and a half mile distance between them.

Aleutian reached up and pressed the levers that were in front of Julie-Su. The two batteries shot up ever so slightly from the release of the locking springs. But unbeknownst to Aleutian, the left magazine well's locking spring failed. It snapped in the middle and flung a two inch piece of itself into the well after bouncing off the bottom of the released battery.

Aleutian grabbed the expended battery, that had lost most of its charge after sitting and doing nothing for two years, and jacket in a fresh one into the hole with Sonic repeating the same process as fast as he could muscle on the other side. The blue hedgehog's battery snapped in place without a problem, but for Aleutian's, his wouldn't lock down all the way. He shoved it down as hard as he could, but the cell wouldn't lock into place.

"Hurry up, man!" screamed Sonic, seeing the bot barreling down on them.

"It won't lock in!" Aleutian frighteningly explained.

Tails and Mathias saw the blip close in on its steady course. It was an easy target but the green dot wasn't disappearing, and Mathias wasn't hearing any blasts coming from their gun. "Right full rudder Rogue!" he ordered. As he grabbed onto an over head pipe to hang on as Rogue made the fast, sweeping turn, he punched the button on the radio beside him. "Aleutian! What's going on?"

"We're having a problem with the gun," said Knuckles on the radio. "Aleutian can't get the battery locked in!"

"Well, hurry up and get it fixed before we're all dead!" fired back Mathias. Tails just slide further down in his seat.

Knuckles and Mathias's voices barked out over Rotor's speaker in the engine room, and from the sounds of the two going back and forth, they where in dire straights. Without anyone telling him, Rotor abandoned his post at the throttles and rushed to the rear supply compartment, remember seeing something in the magazine from the brief glimpse he had of it. He kneeled down and picked a two foot long, olive drab colored tube from a spot on the left wall. It had a hole that measured seven inches in diameter, and on the left side had a smaller tube running down the middle, just forward of the center.

Clutching it hard underneath his arm, he ran towards the rear hatch, passing the high revving V-12 engines. Racing up the ladder, he spotted the bot as it closed in to half a mile. As he gained his footing on the rolling deck, Rotor then saw the tall tale signs of a burst of black exhaust coming from the back of the scout-bot as it gave more power to its engines.

"Rotor, get down from there! What're trying to do, commit suicide?" screamed Sonic as he raced forward to the railing.

Aleutian looked up from the weapon that he was trying to fix, and saw the purple walrus, his jacket flowing in the breeze, holding a big tube. Then it hit him; "Steady as she goes Rogue!" he barked down the hatch.

"What?" cried Knuckles.

Rogue did as she was told, she made them into a sitting duck. The bot adjusted it's turn and centered its sights on the bridge, ignoring the walrus on the rear deck of the boat. It charged up its blasters and waited till it was within range; which wouldn't be long.

Putting both hands, one on the front and the other on the rear, over two push buttons, Rotor pressed them down and extended the missile tube, activating it as the coverings slide to the stops. A top mounted trigger popped up as the metal shield slide back. Shouldering the missile tube, Rotor placed his clawed hand over the long lever just beside his head, and peered down the sighting scope on the left side, which he ended up jamming his glassed to his face with it. After fidgeting from the painful surprise, he took his spectacles off and placed one of the wire supports in his mouth. He again shoved his right eye over the black cover of the sight, and began tracing the bot through the holographic eyepiece.

At the front of the missile tube was a fiberoptic line that ran around the edge. It generated a radar pulse that had a range of up to two miles. The signal would bounce back to the missile itself that, in turn, would program it to intercept the target. All Rotor had to do was point and...

The jolt almost sent Rotor overboard. White smoke shot out the rear of the tube as the missile began its fast trip to the nose of the bot.

Picking up the white contrail and the bright yellow flame from behind the missile, the bot rolled right and pulled up. But the missile followed, slamming dead center at the bottom of the flying bot, detonating its warhead upon impact. Pieces of the bot scattered to the four winds, ablaze and falling to the sea after gravity took over.

Rotor gently put his glasses back on his face and slowly turned around with the smoking tube still across his shoulder, adjusting his hat from the shift of the wind. He gazed at the stunned group hanging over the rails of the bridge. "What!?" he smirkingly said.

"So the walrus does have teeth," said Aleutian, smiling as he leaned up against the broken gun.

"And tusks," he smiled. "Thought I saw something in there that could be of use."

The upper deck erupted in laughter and cheers. Rotor solemnly bowed gracefully and went back down to the engine room with Aleutian telling him to power the motors back down to ahead full.

Espio slide through the hatch to the command compartment and put the autopilot back on, relieving Rogue to go back to be being bored. As he left, Nicole announced to Tails that she was picking up an incoming message.

"It's for Sir Mathias Drake," she confirmed.

"Probably to tell us about our friends," replied Tails.

Amadeus's eye patched face appeared on the small screen, sparking a smile from Mathias. "Greetings Sir Drake, it is nice to know that you are still alive after all these years, but I must make haste in delivering this message. Eggman has sent two scouts out to go see your handiwork, but I think you might be out of the range of their sensors..."

"_...Maybe their sensors, but not their florescent vision. They traced the wake of my boat all the way back to us," _Mathias snuffed in the heavy diesel air.

"...but the big news is, the Echidna's are moving their plans ahead by about twelve hours. The ship will be embarking tomorrow morning at 0500, so, adjust your plans accordingly. Look after my special boy for me, and I will see you when you get back...lots of catching up to do. Knothole out." The screen went blank and Tails replaced it back down, turning Nicole off.

Aleutian came down the ladder first, followed by Sonic, and the rest. Mathias lumbered over to him, his eyes low. "Been a change I'm afraid. Your people are moving their plans up to tomorrow morning."

Aleutian squinted his eyes as he walked over the navigation console to study their current position; Knuckles followed close behind.

"What time?" Knuckles asked Mathias.

"0500, General Prower said."

On instinct, Aleutian looked up at the clock, it was 1623 local time, and in about four hours, they would be passing into another time zone, making them loose an hour of travel time. Checking the distance from the Island to their present course, they were about six-hundred and two kilometers out still. With their present speed being at about sixteen knots, converting it up roughly to thirty kilometers an hour, and with the eleven and a half hours before the ship departs: the distance from the Plunger to the Island came out to...

"...Two hundred and fifty kilometers!" Aleutian grunted. "We'll be that far out when they launch...two hundred and fifty kilometers!" the steamed echidna snorted again, his head jolting back from the displeasure of his mathematical results.

One of the things about Aleutian, and Mathias would soon find out that he wasn't the only one, that impressed the old Dingo was that the echidna had a gift in solving mathematical and other difficult problems, virtually in his head. When Mathias went to the school house to check on Aleutian's progress, the teachers would be ecstatic over him. He would come up with the answers before anyone had the chance to pick up a pencil. Sometimes, Aleutian would get sent home because he would argue with his teachers about a certain answer being wrong.

"So, what do we do?" asked Sonic.

"I say, we forgo the hunting expedition and catch up to them..." came Knuckles.

"...And we can provide escort." finished Mathias.

"But we'll be sitting ducks for the Dreadbot as we cruise on the surface," interjected Julie-Su.

"We could run the engines wide open, speed this thing up some!" suggested Sonic.

"Too risky," pointed out Aleutian, "these engines are being pushed to the brink already. They have been ran like this before, but problems soon came along with the high stress. So far, we've been very lucky. Pushing them wide open could make our luck run out."

"I'd rather get there than not get there at all, Sonic," Knuckles said.

"But ships move too...that's why we call them ships," Mathias pointed out as a matter of fact.

Aleutian grabbed a pencil and traced a digital line out to two-hundred and fifty kilometers from Angel Island. "How fast do you think they'll be going?"

"Don't know; need to know what type of ship it is."

Julie-Su perked up. "From what I heard, it's a real clunker."

"I'd give it ten, maybe twelve knots then," said Mathias. "I'm sure their captain will be taking the same precautions as us."

Again, Aleutian did the long equations in his head and in about ten seconds, he got his answer. But Julie-Su was a fraction of a second quicker.

"Four hours," she happily said, showing that she was the brighter of the two echidna's with a sly grin.

"What's that?" asked Mathias, very puzzled. He didn't even get started on the nautical miles to kilometers conversions.

"We will intercept the ship in four hours after they sail in the morning," answered Aleutian.

"But, that puts us just inside the Dreadnot's patrol area," said Knuckles, gauging the distance at a hundred and twenty five kilometers.

"Then we will have to dive to do sound checks, we'll start at 0700 in the morning" ordered Mathias. "It will slow us down, but it's the safest way for all of us." They all nodded in agreement at Mathias's plan. "Good, everyone get some down time then. We're going to need all the rest we can get; 'cause the real work starts tomorrow."

Climbing back through the hatchway, Mathias followed Sonic and Mighty, and stopped where Tails was still sitting at the radar station beside Mathias's bunk. "You did good today, Miles. Your parents must be very proud of you."

"They are, Mathias. Think nothin' of it."

"Hey, you're the 'special boy.' I kinda have too," Mathias said, patting Tails on the shoulder. "Don't want to disappoint your father."

"Actually Sir Drake," Tails slowly started, "there is more to that." And so, he began to tell the Dingo about being the "chosen one" as the old sea dog laid in his bed, rubbing his jowls and trying to rest his frail body. The afternoon excitement was starting to get to him...and a good story always helped him to relax. But, when Tails spoke of destiny and prophecies, Aleutian slowly crept back into his mind.

* * *

"What's happened to your brother?" 

Knuckles turned around from the left leading edge of the bridge to see Julie-Su coming up from the hatch. Being the loving boyfriend that he was, he grabbed her hand and helped her up. He looked her straight in the eye with a smile. "At least I'm not the only one seeing it. Where's he at anyways?" he asked, his eyes nodding in with the question.

"Playing cards with our buds."

Julie had just come from the torpedo room where the Chaotix were taking Mathias' advice by kicking back, and trying to ignore the heavy diesel fumes that seemed to have worsened as the day got hotter. They were playing a game called "cheat." The game starts out with the whole deck getting spread out to every player. Then, someone has to start the game by laying down a card of any value, face down, and then that player has to call out what the value is. If that player had more of that same value card, they could lay them down as well after saying how many they had. Then the next player could either lay down the matching numbered card, the next highest numbered card, or the next lowest numbered card in the sequence along with multiples if they had them.

Now, if a player lied about laying down what they said they had laid down ,and another player called them a cheater; that player would have to pick up all the laid down cards from the pile. The first to lay all their cards down, won...and Aleutian was creaming the Chaotix. What Julie noticed about him was that he kept touching the table periodically and seemed to get everyone who was "cheating" every time as he did. _"Of course he had warned them that they don't want to play cards with him,"_ the pink Echidna reflected to herself when Mighty asked Aleutian to join in.

"Do you think he's going to stay and help us?" asked Julie-Su as Knuckles turned back around to watch the heavy white and grey clouds to the northwest.

"I think so, but I'm not a hundred percent sure. There is something troubling him deep down..."

"...Emi-La, Knux, remember?" she said, gently grabbing Knuckle's right arm. "That has to be the main reason among others."

"What others?" Knuckles softly asked.

"We talked this morning while you were meditating. He said that he has done some very dark things that he is not proud of."

"Did he say what they were?"

Julie just shook her head. "Whatever he did, I'm certain it was over her. The way he talked about it and the way he looked when he spoke about it, it had to have been over her."

"This, 'mercenary' bit he was doing when he came to us still isn't sitting well with me. But, I think that is behind him now. I still wonder why even he choose that life. Those sorts are only out for themselves and no one else," pondered Knuckles aloud.

"There has to be a good reason Knuckles. Your family doesn't do drastic things without good reasons." Julie-Su wrapped her arms around Knuckles' arm, placing her cheek on his biceps, admiring the early evening view. She saw dark angry clouds looming in the distance as she held Knuckles tightly in her arms, fearing as if he might leave her again.

"I was right about one thing, Julie."

"And that is?"

"We have bonded out here."

She reached up and kissed him on the cheek. "I know sweetie. If anything that has been the best thing about this voyage, its seeing you two coming together."

Knuckles smiled as he looked over at his beautiful companion. "For me, its seeing him happy. He loves it out here and I can see why."

"Is that the reason why you haven't used your Guiding Star Gem to get us closer?"

"Yep," Knuckles snugged.

Julie now embraced him around hist chest but still kept her head on his arm, and stared at the cloudy sky. "He needs us and we need him..."

The last round of Aleutian beating the three frustrated Chaotix, got him ousted from the table. Aleutian just bowed and took his leave with a smirk. "Lesson learned, I hope..." _"Don't play cards with me unless you want to loose,"_ he finished in his head. He would've been happy just by watching the game, but now he was overjoyed at the sweeping victory he took. As they told Aleutian to go away, Sonic was soon invited to the square table. And with the blue hedgehog taking up the warm seat, Aleutian took his leave out of the torpedo room.

Stepping through the bulkheads, he stopped in the sonar and kitchen compartment where Mathias was lying on his bed, his hand shielding his eyes.

"Hey," Aleutian softly said, nudging his mentor on the shoulder, "you okay?"

"I'm not as young as I used to be, dear boy. The excitement from the pass two days is wearing me thin," he ghostly replied.

"This is your last patrol, isn't it?" Aleutian asked, hoping that it would be for the old sea dog.

"I think so. If the King can spare me a crew, I think I might have you take over the Plunger for awhile. She can still do some damage against this Eggman."

Aleutian reached up with his right hand and wiped the sweat off from his face. "I thought you wanted me to go back home?"

"I know, but you know this boat almost as good as me. Yes, you made some mistakes the other day that could have been fatal, but you weren't yourself. In fact, you haven't been yourself until today. You haven't yelled at anybody, you haven't moaned or groaned about anything, I heard you carrying on with the lads back there during the card game; which, by the way, you broke the standing rule onboard this boat..."

"...I know, 'Aleutian isn't to play cards while at sea,'" Aleutian quoting in his best Mathias accent.

"And you seem to be much happier," the tired Dingo added.

Aleutian walked over and leaned his back up against the bulkhead that overlooked Mathias. Crossing his arms and looking to the ground, he slowly took in a deep breath "Actually Mathias, I think I'm going to fully keep her promise and go home to help my people directly for once."

"I can live with that," smiled the Dingo, "but will you at least stay and get the training going?"

Aleutian returned the smile and nodded as he looked over at the picture of Emi-La that was on the shelf above Mathias's head. Beside her's was a picture of Chester. "When I made my way to see my Mother, I had to pass over my suffering people. Some mother echidna with her children close to her, asked me for help. I scared her, Mathias, when she got a good look at me, but I handed her a single bill anyways. She said it wasn't worth anything, but I told her it would keep the fire going. So, she burned it."

"And what did you take from that?" Mathias asked in a loud whisper.

"I don't know. In a way, I was mad at my brother for their situation, but I asked myself; what if I'd stayed. I wondered if there would've been victory over defeat, or if I would have had to run as well?" Aleutian paused and sighed. "I think I need to apologize to him for that?" he murmured out loud.

Mathias starred at the wooden boxed ceiling above him, placing his hands over his head, smashing his ears to the side. "Do you have a grandfather named Athiar?" he asked.

"Yeah, how'd you know about him?"

"He paid me a visit when you were fighting for your life from your wounds; shortly after your Emi-La was killed. He said something that has made me question this whole 'destiny' thing that you kept telling me about your brother and your bloodline. I know your family revolves around it, but, after hearing Tails speak of destiny, I thought of you."

"What did Athiar tell you?"

"'This wasn't supposed to happen.' He also told me to look after you before he disappeared into thin air." Which boggled Mathias's mind on how he did that, along with a certain Fire Ant. "Unfortunately for you, I failed."

Mathias then licked his lips and said with a stern voice. "Do promise me that you'll stop wearing that black garb. It's not you, and what it represents is all in the past. Granted, you and your father have never been on good terms, probably even today." Mathias got a sharp node from Aleutian; "But you held to your duties as Guardian as far as I'm concerned. You helped your people and a whole lot of others; including the ones on this boat, beyond measure my boy. It's time that you join them directly. Teach them what you know. Yes, it maybe dark, but the guy we're fighting now isn't a ray of sunshine either."

Aleutian felt himself stiff his arms as he looked down at the metal floor...deciding; "I will Mathias, I promise." And Mathias knew Aleutian would keep it.

Knuckles peered through the hatchway just as the two friends finished their second; long overdo talk. "Hey, looks like we might have a storm coming. There's some heavy dark clouds on the horizon."

"Any lightning?" asked Mathias, peeking beside Aleutian from his bunk.

"Not that I can see."

Mathias nodded then looked behind him. "Dr. Quack!" he yelled.

"Yes?"

"Soup and bread tonight with tea for everyone. Things are going to get a little rough around here, shortly."

And he wasn't lying.

* * *

Four hours later as they crossed the time zone, the Plunger went headlong into a squall; which Mathias and Aleutian considered to be a "lightweight." No one else thought so. The two foot swells demonstrated who had their sea legs under them by now. 

Sonic found it aggravating to sip the noodle soup as it tossed off his spoon and back into the bowl, along with trying to keep the bowl from falling into his lap. "Why are we chowing down on this right now?" he flapped off.

"Because I don't want anyone to get sea sick on a full stomach," replied Mathias, eating his dinner without any problems.

Everyone else mostly scarfed down the bread after they soaked it in the noodle broth...except for Rogue who didn't partake in the adventure of eating. The seasick pills she took weren't doing her justice with the tossing sub. She bounced off the walls with every hard pitch, her footing getting shakier with every turn in her stomach. She passed the dining Mobians, that were moving their heads with the boat to catch their meal, drunkenly making her way towards her bunk. That's when she began to totally loose it.

"Ah oh, looks like batty is going to hurl," teased Julie-Su.

"Don't start!" snapped Aleutian, coming up from his soup.

"Hey, if she upchucks, I'm following right along," said Mighty from across the table.

Rogue rushed towards the forward hatch, which was dripping from the rain and swells that swept the deck, holding her hand over her mouth. Aleutian shot out of his chair and followed her. When she got to the ladder, she stopped to gain her strength to go up it, but she lost her motivation when her stomach tightened with another rolling swell.

"Here, jump on my back," said Aleutian, coming up behind her and turning so that she could grab on to him. She nearly choked him as they made their way up the ladder, barely squeezing through the small opening.

Collapsing on the wooden deck, with the heavy rain pelting her wings, Rogue gave her partly digested offerings to the sea. Aleutian held onto her by her shoulders, making sure that she wouldn't get swept away by the angry sea. Catching a glimpse of a wave from the corner of his eye, Aleutian pulled Rogue back from the edge of the sub, her face getting sprayed with the salty-water as the swell slammed the side of the boat.

"You okay?" he asked, smiling.

Rogue held her hand up. "I'll let you know in ah' bit," she said before going back to tossing her cookies. With another offering, she lifted her woozy head up, her body shaking from the hard exertions. "Okay, I think I'm done for the moment. Sorry about messing up your paint job."

"Its okay. It needed scrapping and painting anyways," Aleutian joked. He too, knew that people didn't care much for anything when they threw-upped their last meal.

Aleutian helped Rogue back down, grabbing a towel from an overhead compartment as he did and whipping her wet face with it. She slowly began to smile, but that soon went away with another hard toss of the sub.

Dr. Quack soon appeared with a syringe in his right hand, and an alcohol pad in the other. "You got her there, Aleutian?"

"Yeah, why..."

Rubbing Rogue's right arm with the pad to clean the surface area, he jabbed the needle in her arm and pushed the plunger down. Rogue went limp in a fraction of a second later with Aleutian almost dropping her as she went out. He wasn't quite ready for her to collapse in his arms.

"Okay... and why is she out now...!?" Aleutian asked rather hastily.

"Better for her to sleep this through than be up all night, sick. She'll be out for ten or more hours."

"And if I need her?"

The duck smiled before he answered. "I can take her place."

Aleutian picked her up, slinging her legs under his right arm, her back over his left, and carried her to their quarters. He placed her in her bunk, patted her head between her ears, and stayed with her for the rest of the night.

"_...you did for me."_

* * *

So there is a being under that red fur skin. Hope you are enjoying this so far. Let know me what you think so far._  
_

* * *


	12. Death has a Fish

* * *

Hope you have your sub terms by now, or else the chapter title is going to throw you off. Anyways, time to get down to buisness.

Disclaimer (man I am getting tired of writing this thing out. Guess I need to write one and do a cut and paste!) I observe the rights of the Sonic Characters to their creators.

There...enjoy.**  
**

* * *

**Death has a Fish**

by

Mauser

* * *

It was half passed three in the morning and Locke was in the Chaos Chamber. He sat with his legs crossed and began the early stages of his meditation in front of the Master Emerald. With his connection to it, he started limiting it's power ever so slightly. The last thing he wanted to do was kill its grip on the Island completely, and send it crashing down to the sea; and that would definitely alert the enemy that something was up. He began to lower it gently, only dropping it at about fifty to sixty feet a minute. With the lowering being slow, the air pressure change wouldn't be as obvious for the Dingos. He knew the badnicks could sense the change from their sensors, but he really worried about the Dingos noticing. They could reason far better.

It took two and a half hours to settle the lower rock formations to the sea. By the time the ship was lowered by a series of pulleys and steel cables, it was an hour behind from what he and Lien-Da wanted. But, the sun was barley starting to peek over the horizon when the _"Hawking" _put on steam and sailed its occupants away from a war torn flying island.

Watching from the back, a female red echidna watched the Island rise back into the morning sun and over the horizon. _"We will be back when it's safe...for my children especially,"_ she promised under her breath, her hungered kids sleeping at her feet.

* * *

Rogue gently opened her eyes. Her mind wondering where she was at first, but then she painstakingly remembered. _"I'm in a smelly old boat."_

Rising out of her bed and dropping to the floor, she noticed she still had her boots on, which was odd...she never slept with her boots on. _"On the bright side, with my head and all, I really don't need to be bending down."_ Gathering her balance, she slowly made her way out of the small cabin and over to the forward hatch that lead out of the heavily diesel filled air.

Grabbing a hold of the bars she started climbing, fixing her sight down the empty compartments instead of where she was going. She paid the price when her head met the hatch wheel that locked it down. Almost falling from the collision, she climbed back down and held her head with both hands. "Who shut the hatch?" she moaned, "no wonder it smells so bad."

"I did, babe!" came Sonic from behind her. He almost fell to floor laughing when he saw Rogue hit her head.

"It's a wonder you have brains?"she snarled.

"Actually Rogue, if I didn't shut the hatch, we'd be sunk by now."

His phrase hit her like a wall of bricks along with the quietness of the Plunger. "You mean we're under the..."

"...Yep!" he winked, "Having a nice morning yet?"

Shaking her new headache off, she started towards the rear to get the run down on what had happened to her the night before. As the sub swayed from the underwater currents, she remembered...up untill the point when Dr. Quack came along.

Crossing into the sonar room, she saw Vector with his headphones on, turning the wheel in front of him. He startled her when he leaned over and shouted over his shoulder through the hatch. "Nothing except for us."

Aleutian peered through the hatch, his face showing the signs that he was getting frustrated. "You sure?"

"Positive Bro! I don't hear ah thing," came back the crocodile. The engine sounds of the two ships that they had sank two days before were still fixated in his mind. He was listening hard for something that sounded similar to that.

"We'll stay under a bit longer, then we need to surface." replied Aleutian, turning his back and shuffling his way towards Mathias. The Dingo wasn't impressed either as he looked down on the map.

Rogue climbed through the hatch, seeing Espio was at the targeting computer, trying to pass the time with Nicole plugged in beside him. Tails had his eye on the compass as he gripped the helm, making minor adjustments for the north pushing underwater current.

"We should be hearing them by now!" Aleutian growled.

"Patience dear boy, we've done some underwater dives to listen for our friends out there. We dive...we slow, simple as that."

"I know Mathias, but we still should be hearing them by now. We can pick up a fish sneezing from over twenty miles away. Something's up."

"Patience," Mathias warned calmly again, "they could be running a bit behind like we are. Plus, the ship could be slower than we think. How's the hydrogen looking?"

"Sitting around normal, but it has gone up a little," replied Vector, taking in a deep breath as he did.

"Okay, and our battery power?"

"Forward batteries are about fifty percent discharged and rears about thirty," replied Espio, observing the gauges on the left side of the inner-hull by the periscope.

Mathias looked up at the hands of the clock. Seeing that it was just about nine in the morning, he turned back to the navigation map. They were just about to approach the hunting zone of the Dreadbot, and it was dreadfully possible that the Echidna's could have met their fate by it already. But, it is a big ocean.

"Blow the ballast Aleutian, get us cruising at ahead full for a good half hour, and then we dive again."

"Alright! Rogue, set yourself down at one of the diving planes, please," Aleutian ordered.

Rogue hastily sat on the cushy seat in front of the forward diving planes and eyed him. "Good morning to you too."

"Just turn the wheel to the left," he said as he released the compressed air into the ballast tanks, pushing the water out of the vents. He then grabbed the seat beside her and spun the wheel to the right, pitching the rear planes down. "Bubble to fifteen," he ordered sternly.

* * *

They cruised as Mathias ordered. Thirty minutes to gain ground, recharge the batteries, and to clear out the damp, smelly air. Aleutian rode up top on the bridge the whole time, keeping a look out just in case the Plunger's systems may not have been working like they should. _"Either they break when they run, or they break if they don't,"_ he thought to himself. Two years without seeing a knot on the speed-dial does feed the gremlins that seemed to plague anything mechanical and, or electrical.

Knuckles got up from his long sleep. The storm from the night before kept him awake part of the night as he fought to close his eyes. It wasn't that he got sea sick, unlike some bat, but the noise from the sub pitching and rolling made him wonder if he and his beloved were going to be waking up in a watery grave. He made his way to the bridge, saying his good mornings as he passed through the compartments.

Aleutian saw him climb through from the hatch and nodded in greeting. "Look what the cat dragged up."

"Where are we?" Knuckles asked with a curious smile.

"Not were we are supposed to be right now. We've done three dives so far, and nothing."

"We went under while I was asleep!?" Knuckles shrilled.

"Yeah. Does this thing ride like a dream or what?" Aleutian joked, peering back through his binoculars.

"Funny, I thought Sonic would say something like that," Knuckles pointed out crossly.

"A rested crew performs miracles, dear brother. We might need one at this rate."

They both watched in silence at the very calm sea. The mid-morning sun made the water look as if it was a giant sheet of glass. Aleutian thought for a moment to do a search pattern, but the radar was doing fine...at least he hoped. Finding enemy vessels was one thing. A blip comes up on the radar screen, you gauge the course and speed, and you chase the thing down until you need to go under. But now they were looking for something that they kinda hoped was still out there. And it was aggravating. Aleutian figured their course was going to be about the same as the ship's that they were looking for...or at least be close to it.

"Aleutian, it's time," shot up Mathias to the bridge.

He looked over at his brother and patted him on the shoulder. "Time to go down and have a listen again."

"How long are we going to be doing this?"

"Till we find them."

* * *

A half hour later, the moans of the water attacking the integrity of the hull just became part of life after awhile. All that was needed to be done was have someone be at the helm at all times, and for Vector to listen to the sea.

As the Plunger cruised leisurely at eleven knots with her motors at half throttle, Vector thought he picked out a faint whooshing noise through the ambient noise of the sea, "Yo Drake, something's churning off to our left."

Without further thought, Mathias found himself by Vector, snagging another pair of headsets from a cabinet above him. Plugging the headphones in, he knew immediately what the croc was hearing. "We've got em, and she's moving faster than we thought."

Espio saw the contact appear on his screen. Placing his pen on their position, he moved it across the screen to the white contact mark. "Thirty kilometers away. Speed, twenty-two knots," he called out.

"Okay, so she's not a clunker after all," observed Aleutian with a frank tone of voice.

"And she is running late. Like I said, have patience Aleutian," Mathias said through the hatchway. "Surface the boat, lets close in a little and dive back down."

"Roger that. Tails, set course for zero-two-six, everyone else, lets get back up top," ordered Aleutian

Rotor was, by now, getting annoyed between the surfacing, cranking up the heavy diesel motors, and then having to crank them back down to submerge. And this time it almost put him over the edge. It seemed like mere seconds after they had surfaced that they dove back down again. _"They're afraid of an engine failing. At this rate, their fears will be answered."_

* * *

When the range decreased to six kilometers, Aleutian ordered the sub back down. To record, this was the most dives in a period of four hours that the Plunger has ever done. This time, everyone except Mighty, Vector, and Rotor, were in the command compartment. Tails was still on the helm, with Espio looking over at the controls for the business ends of the sub. Rogue and Julie-Su kept to themselves at the dive planes, and Sonic, Knuckles, and Quack were awaiting for something to do.

"Vector, anything new besides our friends up top," Aleutian asked as he peered through the periscope. He could see the vessel sailing off to the left of them, her bow pointed twenty degrees off to the southeast. Her single stake puffed a light cloud of smoke and her white paint a beacon to anyone out for a joy-ride in a aircraft. _"Nice paint job," _Aleutian commented to himself.

"Yo! I just picked up something that's screaming like a girl who just had her party crashed."

Mathias ran back under the hatchway and grabbed the other set of headphones again. This time he only placed a speaker over his left ear. He listened closely as Vector turned the wheel back and forth, trying to find that weird sound that came off from the right side. He picked it up again, but this time it was moving across the center bow and moving to the left at a dramatic rate.

What Mathias heard made him turn pale, but he soon gathered himself to announce that Eggman had a thing or two up his sleeve. "TORPEDO IN THE WATER ALEUTIAN!"

"What!?" Aleutian cried out from around the scope.

"That intelligence report was right, Aleutian! I'm tracking a torpedo that is heading towards the Echidna vessel..."

"...I have it on the computer," said Espio, watching the sound contact racing across the screen.

"Estimated time of impact is in one minute and forty-five seconds," alerted Nicole.

Knuckles looked at Aleutian, his face almost pale with his eyes wide open. "We can't stop it can we?"

Aleutian looked around the room, seeing the dire looks on everyone else's faces as well. Then it hit him. "Actually, we probably can. Espio, set tube four for magnetic pistol. And _Nicole_?"

"Yes Aleutian?"

"You're now part of the crew. Please help Espio with a tracking shot on that torpedo." Aleutian then reached over the intercom button beside the mike. "Mighty, open tube four, and get it ready to fire on the double." He then depressed the button and looked over at the Blue Blur. "Get yourself up there, pronto!"

Sonic smiled a lean face at the scarred echidna and dashed through the hatch.

Before Mighty could even touch the handle to crank the torpedo door open, Sonic appeared in a flash, his hands already moving the handle. "Lets do it to it, bud!"

"Target depth is four meters Espio." came back the female voice. The purple chameleon reached up to the controls of fourth torpedo and turned the nob accordingly. Sonic and Mighty soon heard the snaps of the adjustments. Then Espio plucked the safety off of the plasma torpedo and felt the minor shunt as he did so.

"Fifty seconds Espio." alerted Nicole evenly.

He then took his pen and pushed the tube four button on the screen. Then, while on the move, touched the moving white blip on the screen. More snaps filled the air.

"Shot ready!" confirmed Espio.

"Mighty, Sonic...touch that thing off!" Aleutian demanded quickly at the mike.

Mighty reached down at the red lever and slapped it home. The air propelled the pink torpedo out of the tube with bubbles ejecting out from behind it. As the batteries kicked in, they started rapidly discharging when the torpedo began to turn the four screws, producing hydrogen gases from the over stressed cells. The gas was then sucked into a vacuum pump that was sent to a highly tuned carburetor. Air was then pumped from a small tank into the combustion chamber where the hydrogen was inserted. The gasses exploded with a minor spark, producing raw power from the moving cylinders to the props. The explosion of power had never been measured in the labs. All Mathias cared about was that the Plasma didn't over heat and it didn't blow up before reaching its target.

In the first, four seconds of its activation, the torpedo ran on its batteries at first, the counter rotating screws pushing the fish up to seventy miles per hour. Then the hydrogen engine kicked in and the pink "fish" went up to over a hundred and fifty milers per hour. Now all Vector had to do was to keep the hydrophone glued onto Eggman's new menace.

* * *

"Must have been a ghost echo on the radar," came the brown echidna, standing by the bulkhead that lead inside the bridge. His blue peacoat flapped about in the breeze, his dreads tied back to keep them from doing the same.

"Don't bet on it, we have better radar than the Dingos only wished they could copy. We've picked up something, and it's still out there." Stenson then turned back inside the bridge, its row of windows beaming in light from all directions. He looked over at his crew that he commanded, a mix of Echidnas in color but all well disciplined in their demeanor. "Engines to full power and start doing a zig-zag pattern," he said. The last thing he wanted was to be a sitting duck on a very open pond.

Most of his dreads were replaced by mechanical locks, a particular fashion of the Dark Legion; especially to become one. The few he still had left, consisted of metal prongs and clips that were attached to them. As he moved around the room, his long black robe swept the spotless floor from side to side. He wore a heavy jump suite that showed he had no taste for any flamboyant colors for it was black. It traced up his body and tapered off at his shoulders, exposing only his muscular neck. His eyes were still his. No machined irises would ever touch his sockets.

"Sir, I have something off the port side," came another echidna, red in color.

Stenson took out his binoculars, but for what he saw, he didn't need them. A foamy streak was making its way towards them, shooting ahead of them so it could meet the ship at a certain position. Then, another fast streak raced across the water, bubbling more foam on the surface. It wasn't racing at them, but parallel to left side of the ship. Soon behind the bubbles, the water would cup under a little before rippling back in place.

"Now that's odd..."

A blue flash came from under the blue and green churning water. After the flash, the water erupted into a geyser that was sent several feet into the air, returning back as a shower that sprayed the decks of the _Hawking_.

"Harder zig-zags, get sonar on this...NOW!" the Dark Legionnaire shouted.

* * *

Espio watched as the blip disappeared. Soon, the Plunger swayed from the blast of the two torpedoes. The explosion was muffled by the sea and the double metal skinned hulls. Before anyone ordered Espio to do so, he reached up and activated the safety to the empty tube that either Sonic or Mighty was closing.

"Rogue, get back there and lend them a hand! Knuckles take her place," ordered Aleutian from the periscope, watching the aftermath of the very first successful torpedo sinking. If it wasn't for Nicole and Vector, it would have been like shooting at a bullet with a bullet.

As Rogue made her way forward, Mathias looked through the hatch and winked. "Great shot!"

Aleutian smiled and pointed to Espio. "It was all him." But Espio never looked up. He was too intent in what he was doing, waiting for the next target to pop up on his screen.

A loud ping came ringing through the hulls of the sub with a hard thud that sounded like someone had dropped anvils on the side of the Plunger. It was almost deafening for those inside.

"We've been pinged," came Mathias, holding his headphone over his ear.

"I would've never guessed," Aleutian grumbled in a sly voice as he looked through the periscope again. "Who's doing it?"

"Our friends," came Espio eerily serious. He saw his the screen light up like Christmas tree. First, an outline of the echidna ship appeared on his screen, then the Plunger appeared as the sonar wave traced its outline. But then, the ripples that Espio saw on his screen briefly traced over something half round and far off to the right of them. "Nicole, did you see that?" he asked the computer beside him.

"Part of it Espio. Better tell Vector to start listening to the forty degree angle of the sub."

"Hey Vector, the computer just told you to scan to your right, about forty degrees," repeated Aleutian from the scope, almost viewing to the rear of the Plunger, making sure nothing was coming up behind them.

Meanwhile, back in the torpedo room, Rogue was finding it amusing to watch Sonic and Mighty reloading a "hotdog." They almost of forgot a step until Sonic told the bat to place a metal clip on the inside of the hatch. "You want me to do what?"

"Just do it Rogue," snapped Mighty, "just in case you have to do this yourself sometime."

She did as she was instructed. As soon as the clip was hooked on, Sonic closed the torpedo hatch and locked it down.

"Tube four ready to roll," said Mighty through the radio.

"Awesome, we are trying to get a lock on the Dreadbot, so hang tight back there," Aleutian shot back.

Mathias turned to Vector with a very serious look. "Put our sonar to active. Time to show ourselves." Vector could see the gears turning in the old dingo's head.

* * *

Eggman hurried to the controls of his submerged bot as the alarms sent him running to see what was going on. He got to the screens just in time to see his torpedo get blown out of the water.

"What do we have here?" he wondered out loud. Looking at his screens, he saw a white ship through one of his satellites that hovered high above the stratosphere. The ship was maneuvering around and increasing the distance from the Dreadbot. Clicking on his sonar and "underwater microphones," as he called them, he detected the pinging sound from the ship, searching for what he thought was him. But he kept getting weird echoes back to the far left of him. Then his speakers came alive with a ping that almost rattled him out of his chair.

* * *

"Great Aurora!" gasped Espio. What he saw on his targeting computer was massive, shaped like a horseshoe-crab, but was larger than the Plunger and the ship they were trying to save, put together. "Aleutian, you better get a load of this!"

Aleutian stepped over to the computer and about shouted Aurora's name in vain as well. "Mathias, we have our target about fifty degrees to our right."

"Move the hydrophone to that position son," the dingo said to Vector. Mathias searched the room with his eyes as if he was looking for the Dreadbot on the wall, listening as Vector maneuvered the sub's ears to the two o'clock position. In an instant, he heard the faint noise of water moving around paddles of multiple blades that turned slowly through the water. "Ping him again," came Mathias, sounding as if he was out for blood.

Vector pushed the button to activate the sonar again, sending a harsh high pitched sound through the water that would bounce back when it came in contact with something solid.

* * *

"Sonar to bridge, we have a contact bearing three-two-two, heading zero-two-six, speed undetermined at this point along with depth."

"Keep me informed," replied Stenson through the wall mounted intercom. "Helmsman, turn right, fifteen degrees, hold for five seconds and turn back again, same angle, but add a second to every turn."

Stenson felt the ship go back and forth in the turn as he reached up for the intercom mike again. "This is the captain. All people on board get life vests on and hold on tight. That is all." He then switched to the crew's quarters that were down below deck. "Attention, get all weapons on line, and be ready for anything."

Soon, the skeleton crew that was put together in a giant hurry before embarking on the exodus with the refugees, would bring the ship's main heavy guns to bear, along with the smaller weapons for good measure.

* * *

"Tails, bring us around to zero-six-eight," Aleutian said, reaching up for the intercom beside him, almost jamming the button inside the hole. "Rotor, all ahead full!"

With the whining of the electric motors increasing, the Plunger slowly picked up speed, pushing against the sea with its twin 1300hp motors. Tails slammed the helm all the way over, swaying to the side as the boat turned hard with the added speed of the water over the rudders. Since the diesels were silent, everyone could hear the hydraulics of the twin rudders operating as the control arms were pushed and pulled.

Aleutian lowered the periscope, and then operated the intercom again. "Open all tubes guys," speaking to Sonic and Mighty, "be ready to put all four out."

Aleutian then turned to the Espio. "Lock all forward torps on that thing with a spread of..."

"...three degrees on the gyros. It's the best angle to get the most possible damage." interruptedNicole.

"_Where have you been all my life?"_ Aleutian snorted to himself. "What she said Espio."

Espio did just that as his first settings. Then he touched all the green lighted circles, except the fifth one, and tapped the Dreadbot with his inkless pen. Looking at the readout of the submerged bot, Espio quickly adjusted the depths of the "hotdogs" down to twenty five meters. But a warning light came on the screen, saying that the torps could not make the adjustments to the desired depth at the Plunger's current depth. "We need to go deeper Aleutian," the one horned chameleon said.

"Twenty degrees down bubble," Aleutian said as he walked over to Espio. He immediately grabbed onto something to hold on to as he studied the screen. "That was a great shot Espio. No one could've done it better," he complimented to purple chameleon, patting his shoulder with a firm squeeze. "Set them to magnetic pistols, and lets hope for the best."

"Consider it done," Espio solemnly said with resolve mixed in his voice. After switching the detonating pistols on the control panel, he then took the safeties off.

* * *

Eggman saw the Plunger on his sonar screen as a green slender looking boat that had fins at the front and rear. The green display had centered the tip of itself on the Dreadnot. "What in blazes?" he huffed as he did a double take on the overhead satellite screen, not seeing it with the other ship on the surface.

Eggman couldn't believe his screens. He was the "only" genius that could have come up with a underwater weapon. He started doing diagnostic checks with his instruments, via the overhead satellite, when another loud ping came through his speakers.

"Okay, you want to play, lets play..."

* * *

"Fire!"

Sonic and Mighty slammed the levers down intermittently upon Aleutian's order. The kicks of all four fishes, leaving two at a time; one and two first, followed by three and four, a second later, thundered throughout the sub. But this time, instead of terror from the shudders, everyone on board were grinding their teeth on certain victory.

"Close the tubes, vent the water out of them, and get your tails back up here," fired Aleutian over the radio. "Tails, right full rudder..."

"...Torpedo in the water!" shouted Mathias through the small hole.

"Yea, we just fired..."

"...Not us, him!" Mathias cut off with a snarl.

"Direction?" asked Aleutian, changing his mind set in a heart beat.

"Wait one," Mathias said as he listened closely to the scream of the enemy torpedo, but he soon lost it over their own. "I can't hear it now. Best we straighten out and dive. It was sounding like it was heading our way."

"You heard him, Tails, steady as she goes. Knuckles, Julie...ten degrees down bubble on the plans."

"One minute and ten seconds to impact on the Dreadbot."

"And all torpedoes looking like they're gonna hit," added Espio.

* * *

"What," pounded Eggman, his fist almost smashing a screen on his right to pieces, "they have them too!?"

He watched as his torpedo left the only tube he had engineered on the Dreadbot. When it passed about halfway towards the Plunger, his hydrophone picked up four long dashes heading his way. Placing his hand on the countermeasure dropper, he felt comfortable that the torpedoes would miss him. So confident that he wasn't going to budge the Dreadbot from its current postion.

Releasing them, they instantly started producing bubbles that sounded as if someone threw a whole case of pop rocks into the water. As they flowed down, the torpedoes didn't...and this got Eggman's attention. Unlike his torpedoes, the Plunger's weren't guided by sound; but by pure know how.

* * *

Sonic, Mighty and Rogue slipped through the hatch when Vector bellowed out from his seat with frightened excitement: "I got it again, bro." This time Vector caught the torpedo coming right at them from their right side at a fifteen degree angle from the bow..

Mathias shot his head down through the hatch. "It's right on us Aleutian!"

"Rotor, ahead flank.," Aleutian barked at the microphone. "Tails, left full rudder."

With Rotor's progress being heard, Aleutian watched as the speedometer climbed up from fourteen knots to seventeen, the max the Plunger could do underwater.

But Mathias soon found out that Eggman had a leg up on them. "It's still homing on us. I think it's acoustically guided."

"Sonic," Aleutian said, almost out of breath, "see those two levers on the wall." He pointed, directing Sonic's eyes to the rear left wall where two handles were on top of two bucket looking devices.

"Yea!" the hedgehog replied.

"Get on those and be ready to drop them to the ground," Aleutian said calmly now, trying to lower the tension inside the sub.

"What are they," asked Espio from the targeting screen.

"Those are counter-measures," said Mathias from the hatch. "We've never had to use them, EVER; but Sonic's Uncle Charles thought that they may come in handy one day. Today's the day," explained Mathias.

He then looked back at the hydrophone's gauge and back through the hatchway again; this time his eyes were wide. "It's getting closer."

"Way close," confirmed Espio as he gazed at the incoming dot on the screen.

"Level us out you two! Tails, rudder at mid-ships! Sonic, do it now!" Aleutian barked in one breath. "Rotor, left motor ahead slow, right to one third," he shouted at the microphone in his hands.

Rotor jammed down on the throttles, putting the left handle below the right. He watched as the counter-rotating shafts slowed, seeing the left turn slower than the right.

Sonic slammed the handles down, clunking as they hit the stops. The counter-measures dropped out from the rear, close to the turning screws. Sinking from the metal weights, they also bubbled from the chemical compound and the saltwater, producing the same loud "pop-rock candy" sound as Eggman's. But, for them, theirs worked.

"Torpedo staying on course," observed Espio.

"Right full rudder Tails. Let's try to make ourselves less of a target." Aleutian ordered, watching the speedometer lowering in knots. Now all they had to do was drift by a little and let the torpedo swim by.

The screams of the fish was now becoming audible through the double metal hull. Mathias and Vector took their headphones off as the sound began torture to their ears. The screams echoed throughout the sub, louder and louder as the torpedo approached the counter-measures. The Plunger was running parallel to Eggman's torpedo as it passed to their right side. It searched out and connected with one of the brick shaped counter-measures. But instead of bouncing off it and swimming away, the magnetic detonator went off as it neared the metal undercoat of the bubbling bar.

The explosion knocked Aleutian, Sonic and almost everyone who were standing, off their feet. The sudden, violent jolt, knocked out over half of the lights in the compartments, producing only enough glow to guide them through the compartments. But that was their only "minor" problem.

* * *

"Why aren't my counter-measures working!" shouted Eggman, sounding like the mad scientist that he was. His sound devices had dropped a full ten meters, but the torpedoes weren't changing their depths. He pushed on the throttles to the four turban water fans that were at the rear of his invention, getting the Dreadbot going slowly through the sea. With the joystick by his right side, he yanked it hard to the left.

The Dreadbot slowly proceeded to turn south, but it wasn't fast enough. Desperately, Eggman started to surface the bot, but that was also too futile. Now knowing his creation was underpowered, and lacked the weapons it needed, his face shook from the frustrations of not being able to do anything to dodge the only two torpedoes he couldn't avoid.

Tubes two and four's "hotdogs" just passed under the rising Dreadbot. Their magnetic triggers felt the magnetic field of the Dreadbot's metal construction. The triggers drove a pin through a primer that sat off a high explosive charge. The torpedoes were less than a foot below the bottom of the Dreadbot before they expelled their explosive payload.

* * *

Hooked so far? Great! Please post your reviews.

* * *


	13. The Battle for Exodus

* * *

What the chapter says.

Disclaimer: I observe the rights of the Sonic Characters to their creators.

* * *

**The Battle for Exodus**

by: Mauser

* * *

Rotor lifted himself off the damp, oily floor. He thought at first that his body was trembling from the hard knock down he received from the violent hit, but he soon realized that it wasn't him. Rotor heard the carrier bearings' high pitched whining from one of the screws. After he picked himself off the floor, he quickly determined that it was the right motor; the shaking drive shaft was a tall tale sign. Seeing this, he reached over to the throttle levers and pushed the right motor's lever down to the "stop" position. As the vibration ceased he could hear a hissing noise coming from behind him.

Aleutian slowly picked himself off the floor with the help of Knuckles. "You okay?" Knuckles asked his brother.

Before he could reply, his ears perked up to the sound that all submariners never wanted to hear...water leaking inside a submerged boat. "Yeah, but the boat doesn't sound so good," he groaned over his minor aches.

"That was a kick in the pants," came Sonic, picking himself off the floor and shaking the aches off from the hard jolt as well.

"Everyone else..." Knuckles was cut short by two muffled explosions from the outside. "Now what!?"

"Our torpedoes," answered Aleutian, his voice straining as he regained his footing.

"Vector, you hear anything?" asked Espio loudly.

Vector slowly replaced himself in his seat as he got his headphones on. He was about turn the wheel when a light flickered in front of him, briefly exposing Mathias slumped body on the floor, his head against a wooden closet. "Yo, Doc, Mathias is down for the count," he shouted

Before Quack could get up as well and crawl through the hatch, Aleutian was already through it and tugging on Mathias. "Hey, Mathias! You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just catching my breath from that one," the old dingo breathed out as he saw Quack step through.

"I need to check you for a..."

"...no need right now Doctor," countered Mathias. "Aleutian," he softly spoke next, "damage control, and see about our friend out there..."

"...I've got a hissing noise coming from back here," Rotor announced through the radio.

Aleutian dropped back into the dark command compartment and flipped on the gauge lights that he could search for blindly. He noticed that their depth was hanging around thirty-five meters and their speed was down to six knots. But then he saw the compressed air gauge...it was steadily dropping, approaching the four-hundred PSI mark.

"BLOW BALLAST, DIVE PLANES UP!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. Obeying his own orders, Aleutian reached over to the small wall of valves by the helm and started releasing what air they had left into the ballast tanks.

Knuckles grabbed the rear dive planes and started to turn the wheel, but his efforts were met with zero progress...the wheel was jammed. "I can't turn this thing."

"Neither can I," said Tails, the helm not even budging, stuck hard to the right.

"Here, let me try," came Mighty. He got up to the wheel of the rear dive planes and gave it a good tug. Instead of turning it, he snapped a spoke off. "Ah, maybe not."

"Get to the rear Mighty. In the supply room should be a box of lights. Bring them here, get yourself an arm full, and get back to Rotor," Aleutian requested, watching the depth needle starting to rise.

"Bubble?" asked Julie-Su.

"Just slam the plane all the way up," Aleutian said, grabbing the mike again, "Rotor, give all she has left in the engines. As soon as we surface, get those diesels up and running."

Mathias slowly got himself up and went searching for the leaks, telling Dr. Quack to stand by in the command room. As he moved along, he traced minor leaks to the overhead pipes with valve wheels sticking out from them. As he turned them, the water leak would slow to a trickle with only droplets hitting the floor. Then he slowly, and methodically, moved his way forward.

Mighty returned with the box and grabbed two hand full of bulbs, and started replacing the burned out ones as he made his way to help Rotor.

The walrus was too busy finding where the air leak was coming from. With the sound slowly dying as the air tank ran dry, and with the fully throttled electric motor screaming, he quickened his pace until he spotted a small cut in a black hose. He scrambled back into the supply room and started looking for some heavy duty tape, squeezing behind Mighty as he did so.

At twenty-two meters and rising, Aleutian was feeling better about their situation, but he wondered if the Dreadbot had been sunk. With Vector running short on time to pick it out, his options were getting slim as the needle passed over twenty meters. Instead of standing and thinking, Aleutian grabbed the helm with Tails and tried to turn it back to mid-ships. With one hard pull, it slowly began to budge.

What had happened when the Dreadbot's torpedo detonated so close to the Plunger was that the force from the blast pushed the right rear diving plane into the right screw, causing two of the three brittled blades to snap off. One shot up from its release and sank its metal blade into the hydraulic arms of the rudder before falling to the depths, causing hydraulic fluid to leak out into the sea. With out hardly any of the fluid left in the reservoir, Tails and Aleutian were using real brute force "power" steering. And for the rear planes, they were totally inoperable.

Vector slid through the hatch and grabbed some of the light bulbs before he went back to help Mathias, climbing his way up with the rising sub. He couldn't hear anything except for the two explosions to the front of the sub. And now, he was worried about, Vector...and Vector couldn't see.

* * *

"Contact surfacing, port bow!" came a voice from the forward deck.

Stenson grabbed a set of binoculars and went to the side of the sighting. Peering through, he saw the rusted metal hull of the Plunger, breaking the water with the conning tower and bow first. The sub soon settled itself on the surface, and for Stenson, an easy target. But before he ordered his two main twin guns to fire, his sight caught the painting of the shield of The House of Acorn on the side of the conning tower.

"No one target that boat," he ordered.

"But why?" came one of his crew.

"I think they maybe on our side." _"I've seen that shield before. Not in person but books..."_

"...Sir, something's surfacing, port side; rear!"

Stenson followed the arm of the brown echidna in the peacoat, his eyes tracing over to the water that was bubbling up from the depths. Then he saw a black and red dome rising from the ocean.

"In the name of Dimitri..."

* * *

"Torpedo tube inoperable, auto-targeting damaged, flooding under control." came the computer voice.

Eggman didn't care, he was at the surface, and he was powering up his two main cannons. He was going to have to aim on the fly, but his target was moving slow and turning away from him.

"Repair the targeting systems."

Twitching the stick, he took aim with his first two shots.

* * *

Aleutian was half way up the ladder to the bridge hatch when he was knocked off it. He fell hard onto the floor, but only bruising his pride. "What was that!" he screamed down the hole.

Sonic was way ahead of him. Leaving Tails from the helm, he raised the periscope up, and swung himself around with it until he saw the Dreadbot half way out of the water. "We didn't kill it!"

"What!" cried Aleutian as he slid down the ladder. Sonic moved over from the periscope so the stunned echidna could have a look himself. Aleutian wasn't pleased as he grabbed the mike off the wall. "Mighty, open the rear tube," Aleutian said mildly cool through the radio. "Espio get a fix on that sucker, impact detonation." he ordered next, looking away from the scope.

"Aleutian!" barked Mathias from the radio, "I need your help at the forward torpedo room."

"Knuckles, take over!" Aleutian shouted, pushing away from the scope and swinging through the hatch as he shouted.

Knuckles was at a loss when his brother dropped him the command. "Okay, so what do I do?"

"Point the scope at the Dreadbot and start pushing buttons. I need a fix on it," came Espio as he activated the last Plasma torpedo.

Knuckles did just that, following the Dreadbot as the Plunger slowly turned to the right, Tails and Sonic trying their hardest to turn the helm back. It would move, but barely.

"Incoming!" Knuckles screamed as he saw two more hot, green energy rounds left the front mounted guns of the Dreadbot.

Aleutian braced himself against the walls when he heard Knuckles' scream. As the Plunger swayed from the misses, he continued to the front.

Stepping through the hatch, his heart skipped a beat upon seeing the forward pipes gushing out water. Mathias was up trying to secure one of the valves on the left side with Vector working at another one down on the right. The scarred echidna instantly went to work.

Mighty, at the other end of the sub, had the rear tube opened. Rotor watched as the armadillo turned the hand cranks, and levers. The walrus then grabbed the mike by the wall and spoke through it. "Torpedo room ready," pausing to look at the level of air in the tank. It was steadily climbing, but it wasn't enough to shoot the fish out. "You're gonna have to wait a for the air pressure to rise. I only have one diesel motor running so it's going to be a bit."

"We're gonna be dead in a bit!" came Julie-Su from the forward diving planes, trying to keep the sub level from the added weight of the flooding bow compartment.

"This isn't going to be good!" warned Knuckles as he heart sank from what he saw.

One of the hot bolts landed shy at the rear of the Plunger with the shock wave rocking the boat violently. It sent Mighty across the compartment and knocked him out cold when his head met the bulkhead. Rotor was instantly at his side.

"Mighty, you alright?" he asked as he shook the unconscious armadillo, ignoring the small water leaks that came from the left side of the compartment. The round ended up searing the outer hull open of the boat and cracked the inner-hull just enough to leak water into the inside.

Rotor reached up to the mike and pushed the button to summon Quack to the rear, but his calls were not being heard at the other end.

* * *

"Target that thing and fire at will!" ordered Stenson, pointing towards the Dreadbot. When he saw two yellow doors open up and produced two long barrels from the Dreadbot's hull, Stenson knew right off who the enemy was.

As the order was passed down, the forward and rear guns came up to bear on the large bot and fired, sending their red plasma rounds out to the Dreadbot. The single bolt from the forward deck cannon missed the bot completely, but the rear found one of the enemies main cannons.

* * *

"Way ta' go Echidnas!" exclaimed Knuckles, seeing one of the Dreadbot's plasma guns explode into a fiery heap of junk.

The last leak was stopped as Aleutian helped Mathias shut off the last value. "Let's get back to the command room and finish this. Afterwards, we're going to need a tow," came Aleutian, out of breath and drenched with saltwater.

Mathias took one heavy deep breath, trying to stay aloft himself. "I'll meet you two back there, just need to catch my breath. I'm not as young as I used to be."

"Okay Mathias," said Vector. "See you on the flip side. Lets get going, bro," he said, jabbing Aleutian on the arm.

* * *

"What!?" Eggman exploded upon seeing his cannon being smashed to the four winds.

"Targeting system back online," came the computer voice again.

"Great, the best thing to happen to me so far," Eggman snorted as he activated the missiles on top of the bot. As the hatches opened, he squeezed the trigger to his last cannon.

* * *

"Oh, no..." breathed Knuckles, viewing through the scope that was now pointed to the direct left of the boat. "Brace yourselves!"

Aleutian and Vector were half way to the command room when the Plunger shook with ferocity. The sharp crack of the explosion rang in Aleutian's ears as the force from the blast shoved him down on the deck. Vector was thrown right on top of him. Smoke filled the damp atmosphere as the two slowly recovered themselves from the now wet floor. As Aleutians ears ceased to ring, it was replaced with the sounds of water gushing in behind them.

"Mathias!" he cried out, running as fast as he could through the sleeping quarters.

Rogue felt her teeth almost bite her tongue when her head was stopped by the bulkhead she was holding onto. She fell to the ground, dazed with a splitting headache.

Julie-Su fell off her seat from the hard shudder with only her pride broken from the fall. "What happened?"

"We took a direct hit..." Knuckles pointed out, cutting himself off when he notice the bubble starting to move towards the down angle part of the gauge, slowly tracing over the two degree mark. "Su, get on that dive plane and point it up, fast. We're starting to sink!" Knuckles exclaimed calmly.

Espio mopped himself off the floor, using the ledge of the targeting screen to help. "How we looking Nicole?" he asked the computer in a low groan.

"Still on target Espio, but you need to set the depth up to three meters."

"Consider it done," he struggled out with his aching joints. Dialing in the final adjustment as best he as he could with his blurred vision, he switched the safety off.

Knuckles checked the air pressure and it was reading two hundred and fifty-six pounds per square inch. They had forty-four more to go, but he wasn't sure if they were going to be around to see it.

* * *

"Keep firing!" shouted Stenson. His face soon lit up when both shots nailed the Dreadbot, one of the rounds killing the last gun. But Stenson wasn't going to let up.

* * *

"Come on you blasted missiles! How long does it take you to get primed?" Eggman was getting real nervous now. Seeing his creation getting torn to shreds by a lone, beat-up ship wasn't making his day. So to help, the _Hawking_ was going to get the whole volley, determining that the rusted sub was done for.

* * *

"Mathias!" Aleutian shouted as he dropped to his knees in the ankle deep water that was rising fast. Mathias was pinned to the wall and under load of piping that was broken loose from overhead, which Aleutian was feverishly trying to lift off of him. He tugged as hard as he could, but the pipes wouldn't move. Grabbing one by itself, he tugged at it and managed to free it, but the next pipe and the one at the of it bottom stood fast. Aleutian felt along the bottoms of them. To his horror, they were jammed underneath the metal floor, but he didn't see whole picture as they also pierced through the inner hull. Water soon became a factor, rising as it poured through the long gouges that rippled the side hull. Mathias's head almost slipped under, his snout still sticking out, before Aleutian pulled his head up out of the water:

"Mathias, hold your breath, I'm gonna try one more time."

The dingo barley nodded as his felt his body grow weaker; his mind slipping from reality. Taking in a long breath, he placed his head back under.

Aleutian grabbed the pipes again, but this time with Vector coming to his aid. They both pulled hard at the same time, but they couldn't release Mathias from the clutches of his metal bonds.

The frustrated echidna raised Mathias's head from the rising water, the Dingo taking in a hard deep breath. "We can't get it alone, but Mighty might be able to do it."

Vector nodded his head and was about to leave to get the strongest thing around, when Mathias stopped him with his groggy voice:

"There's no time."

"Your right!" Aleutian said, his resolve deepening. "Come on Vector and give me..."

"...No!" Mathias barely choked out, "close the hatch and save your family, Aleutian."

"What about you, you _are _my family..."

"...Your's is your brother. Leave me; there is no time! It has to be done."

"NO!" Aleutian shouted out defiantly. "I'm not going to leave you..."

Mathias reached up with his free left hand and grabbed Aleutian by the back of his head, his fingers squeezing his dreads firmly. "She's done for Aleutian," he began with a soft voice, the water coming higher around his head. "You don't have enough time or hands to stop the leaks," he whispered.

Then he deepened his stare at his adopted son; repeating to Aleutian what he hoped the young Guardian would listen to for his sake; "Let go..."

Aleutian's face turned to sadness mixed with anger from Mathias's words. "But what about you?" he whimpered out, tears following his words.

"I'll be fine. Get out, close the hatch, buy yourself some time," he then pulled Aleutian closer to him, his grip strengthening around the tearing echidna's dreads. "You were a son to me Aleutian...a son."

Aleutian felt Mathias's grip loosen as the dingo's eyes began to be covered by the rising water. Aleutian was very hesitant to move. With out looking back, he laid Mathias's head below the water, but he still didn't move.

Seeing the whole picture, Vector took action and grabbed Aleutian and slung him over his shoulder. The echidna started kicking him as he moved through the now calf deep water towards the hatch. "Let me go Vector!"

"If I do, there will be two dead bodies in here, and possibly a third if your brother finds out that I left you. He's right, we need to go."

With a hard toss, Vector threw Aleutian through the hatch and slipped himself through it. Reaching inside and grabbing the metal door, he slammed the hatch hard with water racking inside the compartment. Vector rotated the wheel that squealed as if it was screaming, sealing the torpedo room from the rest of the world forever.

Aleutian rushed to the door as Vector stepped away. The croc lowered his head as Aleutian banged on the door, crying out with his tears to Mathias.

The saltwater burned his eyes as he stared up at the rippling surface; but he didn't care. With hope replaced by defeat, Mathias accepted it; but he still felt guilty and sad. The only carefree thought he had was that he was going to be buried at sea in his sub; his iron coffin he now realized. And he was going to see his son and wife very soon.

But he still felt guilty of this. With his lungs fighting to breathe, he bellowed his last thought in his mind that he wished the echidna on the other side of the hatch could hear; for Mathias could hear him:

"_I'm sorry Aleutian..."_ He then took his last breath.

* * *

Knuckles saw the PSI needle reach the three hundred mark and grabbed the mike from the wall. "Mighty, fire!" he ordered, but no kick was felt through the sub. "Mighty, Rotor, fire the torpedo!" Still nothing.

Rotor was knocked off his feet and was under his own wad of piping from Eggman's dead on shot. He tried to get up and press the red lever on the rear tube upon hearing Knuckles's command to fire, but he couldn't move from the heavy obstacles that were stacked on top of him. The speaker to the radio worked, but not mike. He yelled at the top of his lungs, but the lone diesel engine that was cranked all the up, drowning out his cries for help.

"Fire that thing or we're all toast!" yelled Knuckles at the mike, keeping his stance by the periscope that was pointed at the Dreadbot.

Sonic's mind was racing over everything: the Plunger's bow was down now at a seven degree angle, (even with Julie-Su pointing the only working dive plane up), and the sub's speed was cut in half. With the tube pointed forty degrees to the left of the Dreadbot; Sonic made his decision that needed to be done.

Leaving Tails from the helm, he shot to the small hole that lead to the supply compartment. He swung himself through it, rolling into a spin and tracing down across the graded metal floor in a rolling ball of quills. He landed his feet on the deck and dashed forward with a jump, flying over the top of the bulkhead from the supply room to the engine room. He powered his legs as hard as he could up the now eight degree angle of the boat, almost tumbling through the engine room to the electric motor room. Seeing the last hatchway, Sonic jumped over it as he left the compartment behind him. He cleared the aft torpedo room in a blink of an eye, only seeing Rotor pinned down by the plumbing and Mighty out-cold on the right side. But that all went to the back of his mind as he extended his left arm out. As he covered the last few feet, his hand slapping the red lever down.

The kick shot the Plunger down slightly further into the water as the torpedo left the tube. With the stern risen out from the water, the pink torpedo shot up half way out of the water before its ton and a half self fell victim to gravity.

* * *

Eggman could'nt believe what he saw.

"A pink torpedo? Who would color..." then it hit him as the color was a diversionary tactic. He saw the torpedo launch out of the tube with half of it only noticeable on the surface. As the plasma fish disappeared under the surface, it took a hard right and raced towards the Dreadbot, leaving its signature wake behind it

Eggman reached over to his console and pressed the red button that would launch the missiles at the white ship. But the process took time. To mere mortals it would be short; but at the speed of the plasma torpedo, the speed at which the binary code had to travel to the satellite then to the receiver of the Dreadbot, then the message to get the launching process to work, and finally for the solid rocket fuel to ignite...the torpedo was already a hundred feet away from impacting. As the missiles slowly won the battle over gravity, that hundred foot of sea was covered in under a second and two more feet were added when the torpedo slammed itself inside the Dreadbot before the primer ignited the high explosive payload.

Between Knuckles looking through the periscope and Stenson through his binoculars, they both witnessed the fierce blast that rocketed up fiery pieces of the Dreadbot in the air. The fire ball covered the front and top of the bot. The missiles that it was trying to send off, exploded from the chain reaction. The rumble soon died with another minor explosions before the Dreadbot settled into a smoking, floating heap of twisted metal. With the added holes in its skin, it soon began to sink into its water grave.

All Eggman could do was sit in shock before his rage took over, smashing his screens to the four winds.

* * *

I know, you think I am a murderer for killing Mathias. I am sorry if I hurt you (it hurt me too) but it had to happen for the story.

Leave your comments and all.

* * *


	14. The Final Dive

* * *

Don't catch your breath just yet.

Disclaimer: I observe the rights of the Sonic Characters to their creators.

* * *

**The Final Dive**

by: Mauser

* * *

"What's happened, Knux?" asked Julie-Su upon hearing the explosions from the outside.

Knuckles paused before he replied, his eye fixated on the smoldering bot. "We did it. It's sinking to the bottom."

Quack, Knuckles, Julie-Su, and Espio gave out a loud cheer as Rogue was still counting flowers on the wall. The small cheers soon faded as Vector ducked through the hole, his arms full of wooden paddles. Behind him came a black rubbery bag that thumped on the floor, and behind that came Aleutian with another one in tow in his right hand. "We have five minutes to abandon ship. Get your stuff that you'll need and meet up top at the rear of the sub."

"Where's Mathias?" asked Espio. Aleutian just shook his head at him, his dark painful stare coming back in the process.

"Hey," Sonic said as he stuck his head through the hatch. "Mighty is down and Rotor is caught under some pipes."

"Coming!" said Quack, forgetting about his instruments and Rogue.

Aleutian returned back to his cabin and snatched his journal from the table just before it fell off into the ankle deep water. He threw it into his duffle bag that was laying on top of his bunk. Zipping it up and adjusting his coat, he left his home at sea for the last time, and under harsh circumstances. As he passed by Mathias's bunk on the way through, dodging Sonic and Tails as they went for their stuff, he snatched the two pictures from the shelf: one of Chester and the other one of Emi-La. He placed them into his bag as well.

As he moved into the command room, he stopped and looked over at the gauges. Their dials were twitching as the boat rocked between the light swells of the late-morning sea as she took on water. He soon left the compartment after hearing the moans of the hull heaving its cry of pain.

Sonic and Tails raced back with their backpacks along with Knuckles, Julie-Su's, and Rogue's. Before going topside, Aleutian shut the engines off, and switched on the emergency fuel shutoff valves. He waited as Knuckles was the last to climb up the ladder, taking one last look at the inside of the Plunger. He let a sad frown come over his face as he looked on for more than a moment as the water came up to his calves. Aleutian looked down in solitude before he climbed the ladder, his bag strapped across his jacket covered chest.

Water sloshed over the deck as Aleutian climbed his way out of the hatch. Directly to the stern was the smoldering bot that still was cooking off its ammunition with low thunders of explosions. The bot was just a figment in the back ground as Espio and Vector got the rafts figured out and inflated. They, along with Rotor, Dr. Quack, and an unconscious Mighty, climbed into one as the others got into the last, with Rogue slowly coming around.

Grabbing a paddle, Aleutian shoved off from the now awashed deck. As the two rafts paddled away, sticking close together as they ventured away from the sinking sub, they watched as the Plunger's deck gun slipped below the surface, it's stern steadily lowering as the sub began to slowly be overtaken by the sea.

Aleutian stopped paddling and placed his oar behind him. He watched as the Plunger's sail slipped halfway down, the shield of Acorn disappearing with every pound of water that breached inside the hull. He couldn't believe what his eyes were projecting into his mind. He was saved by this boat, his happier times were on this boat, and now, he was watching her take its last plunge to the bottom; never to see the light of day again. As he leaned forward, tears began to dance on top of the water below him as he let them flow from his battered eyes. Under his deep quivering breath, he gave his last good-bye to Mathias, a whisper that only he could hear...

"...Tell Chester I miss him."

The bridge slipped under waves that were generated by the water replacing the air. This was the Plunger's last fight, and it lost as the tip of the stern disappeared below the sea. Along with it, Aleutian's decision from sixteen years ago.

For a brief time, the two rafts drifted in the water, their occupants watching as the ocean became calm again. Then Knuckles, Julie-Su, Sonic, and Tails, all gathered around Aleutian and held onto him. They knew what was going though his mind; his body language painted the sad picture for them. He just kept staring at the calm waters, hoping that the Plunger would surface back, saving him for a second time.

Releasing from Aleutian, Julie-Su grabbed her pistol, loaded it with flares down both tubes, and shot them up into the sky.

* * *

"Bring us around," ordered Stenson, "Get us close to them and lower the gangway. Looks like our rescuers need rescuing." he said, witnessing the two red flares from one of the life rafts.

As his helmsman confirmed his orders, he went back to the railing and watched the smoldering Dreadbot slip below the waves:

"And good riddance!"

* * *

"Snively!" shouted Eggman from his newly decorated room with busted up computer screens and parts. "Send all we have from Angel Island to here," he ordered, giving Snively a pocket computer with the grid number where a ship was that he wanted whipped off the sea. "Do it now!"

* * *

"Welcome on board!" greeted one of the echidna's from the crew. He stepped lightly down the lowered stairs to the rafts. First, he extended his arm out to Espio, who took it without hesitation, then he helped the rest onboard.

When he cleared the first raft and started with the second, he saw the mark on Knuckles. "Guardian?"

"Yes!" Knuckles snapped.

"The Captain will be most anxious to see you..." He did a double take when Aleutian came off the black rubbery raft. "Another Guardian!?"

"No, just one," Aleutian replied, his voice low and soft.

"But the mark..."

"...It's him, not me! If you want to beg to differ, then I hope you can swim if your life depends on it!" Aleutian snapped back.

"Okay, okay," the echidna said holding his hands up.

When everyone was onboard, the echidna set the rafts adrift and quickly made his way up the long gangway.

"Full-power now. Course to one-nine-two," ordered Stenson, upon seeing the gangway being hosted back up.

He watched as three echidna's were being escorted to him by one of his Dark Legion troopers. To his astonishment he caught the white marks of Aleutian and Knuckles as they climbed the stairs to the bridge.

"I'm honored to have you on board my ship, especially you Guardians, but I'm afraid our little victory has caused some tempers to blow," he said as he nodded in greeting to the three.

"How so?" asked Knuckles.

"Seems Eggman has sent everything he has, flying right for us. I have only enough weapons for maybe a squadron attack, but this looks like two wings worth of bots. It will all be over before it happens."

Aleutian hung his head down. Going from one pitched battle to another wasn't starting to agree with him anymore. "So what do we do?"

"Knux, you have that Guiding Star Gem with you?" Julie-Su quickly asked.

"Yeah, always...hey wait, this thing's huge. I've never used it on something this big before..."

Aleutian stepped forward and yanked his brother over by his dreads. "Well, better start making it your first, or we're all dead!!" Seeing Aleutian's tempered, scarred face was all the motivation that Knuckles needed.

He quickly released himself from his imposing brother and walked outside from the bridge and onto the forward deck. Reaching into his glove, he pulled out the small green stone and started wielding it's power through the Master Emerald. He began to concentrate on a point, but his trance was lost when Stenson broke his train of thought;

"Two minutes!"

"_Yeah sure, no pressure!"_ Knuckles mumbled in his head.

He closed his eyes again, and channeled his energy through the stone. He fixated on the point where he wanted to go in his mind, and waited.

The front of the ship began to stare down a yellow, wavy circle as Knuckles brought forth his power. Stenson almost went to the telegraphs and had the engines go to reverse when Julie-Su stopped him. She explained what was going on, and with Aleutian over hearing it, he too became aware at what his brother was doing.

It took five seconds for the ship to be engulfed by the sphere; and the sphere itself, soon vanished, leaving only the wake of the _Hawking_ and the life rafts of the Plunger over the sea. When the bots arrived at the open ocean, Eggman exploded into a fit.

* * *

The ship reappeared with the sun hanging lower in the east. Aleutian immediately knew they had crossed a time zone, maybe two, in under three seconds. He just stood inside the bridge as Julie-Su left to hug Knuckles. He was in awe at what his brother had done as he watched Julie-Su give Knuckles a kiss on the cheek.

Espio soon appeared inside the command deck with Nicole in hand. "What message should I send to Knothole. Knux just put us a day out from Mobius Prime."

"Where?" asked Aleutian in surprise.

"Where we sank those two ships a couple of days ago. Right between those two islands," Espio explained, showing Aleutian the GPS beacon on the computer screen.

Aleutian raised his head and stared at Knuckles through the window. He didn't know what to think. He wanted to feel affection and admiration for what his brother had done. He tried; but his wanted feelings lost out to anguish and rage in the same heart beat.

"Send this; Dreadbot destroyed, refugees okay," he bitterly began, pausing to gather his thoughts on the last part; "Plunger lost, Mathias is with his son."

Espio nodded at Aleutian and watched him stroll over to his brother, wondering if he was going to have to kill the monster that was coming back out.

"You mean to tell me that you could've done this long ago?" Aleutian barked at Knuckles, seeing Julie-Su becoming defensive.

"I didn't know I had it in me..."

"...Yeah right! So tell me oh Prominent One, why didn't you!?" Aleutian fiercely fired back, raising his voice even further.

Knuckles looked squarely into his brother's darkened eyes. "I think you know." And he said nothing else.

With a lasting hard look and a deep, raging sigh, Aleutian pivoted around and left his brother and Julie-Su to themselves. Making his way down the long steps of the upper mast, he planted his feet on the main deck. Before him was a gathering of his own kind around the Freedom Fighters and the Chaotix; listening as they stood, at to what they had just been spared of. Sonic looked up after making a face to a little baby echidna and saw Aleutian, his angered and scarred face beating a path back down the road that he had just come away from:

"And he was the one who led us!" he shouted pointing towards Aleutian.

Aleutian tightened his fist when Sonic pointed at him, gesturing his people, that he'd abandoned long ago, to look upon him as a hero. The bunch turned, showing their faces to the scarred Guardian, his white crest being very pronounced from the morning sun. Mother's with their kids turned and gasped with their open mouths. Old men turned, observing a Guardian that looked as if he had taken on saving the world by himself. In a way, he has.

And to Aleutian's great bewildered emotions, they bowed to him. He almost fell backwards as he tried to runaway from what they were bestowing on him, but he caught himself before falling. His face hardened as he tightened his fist; feeling ashamed at the honor that they were giving him. He was torn; feelings that he should have felt never came to him. In an odd way he wanted to cry, but he didn't know why.

Without a word, without an emotion except the one painted on his seething face; he turned his back on his people, and walked away from them, his head and tail hung low in the morning breeze.

* * *

Darkness gracefully slid her cloak over the sea with the sun showing it's last light over the stars and the quarter moon. Aleutian found himself watching the churning water from the rear of the ship, his arms crossed over the railing; his chin tucked in between the folds. The wind was beating on his back but it never pierced threw his goatskin jacket. But the trials from the morning were. He felt as if he was Emi-La; an orphan, but then the thought of his real parents kept creeping back into his mind. His only family that he had known were gone, but the family he had left, wanted him back. _"But can they help me?"_ he asked himself. They hardly knew him, and he was afraid that they might change him too fast...and he still wasn't ready for that...or was he? And then there was his father.

Dr. Quack came up from the infirmary that was three decks below from the main one. The opening of the hatch brought in fresh air into his lungs, even as his face was covered over with a surgical mask. Looking around the night sky, he caught sight of Aleutian, and he knew what was going on. Part of being a doctor was to look after the physical and mental health of people. One could not survive without the other.

"Hey," he said coming up from the rear of the lone Guardian, "when do we arrive back? Did the captain tell you?"

Aleutian took a deep breath to change his train of thought. "Sometime in the morning."

"Good, we can drop them off..."

"...No, they are setting sail as soon as we're off. Afterwards they are off to Albion."

"I thought they were heading to..."

Aleutian shook his head. "My brother's idea, and it sounds good." Knuckles told him of finding the lost tribe and helping them find Journey's end; Albion. He wished Emi-La was around to visit it; but that thought turned to poison. It was he who was Journey's End to Emi-La. That was what she told his great grandfather.

Quack turned his attention to the slick wake that seemed to have Aleutian hypnotized. "Most of the children here are malnourished. I've never seen anything so desperate in all my years as a physician."

"I haven't been down to look, myself," Aleutian sighed.

"It will strengthen your resolve, Aleutian. It has mine."

"My resolve has brought me nothing," Aleutian crudely whispered.

"Really? Take a look around you Aleutian. Your resolve has brought you this far, this week. You saved everyone onboard this boat, and who knows how many more if you didn't stop that thing," Quack retorted in a solemn voice.

"We did!" Aleutian corrected.

"But you got us up in the morning and dragged us out here. Yes _we_ did it, but it was _you_ who made it happen. I see what is happening to you. You're on a slippery slope and you found a way up it. Now it's time to find your footing again and get yourself up there."

Dr. Quack reached over and squeezed Aleutian's shoulder. The echidna turned his head slightly towards Quack, his dreads flowing backwards across his emotionally strained face due to the heaving wind. The moon glared over his scarred face.

"I must say," came Dr. Quack in a somber voice, "every time I see your scars, I thank myself for studying hard to become something better than a battlefield surgeon. Wish you had come to us sooner. Those would have been cleaned up, and you also wouldn't have been scarred emotionally for such a long time."

Aleutian turned back towards the sea and sighed. "Wish I did too."

* * *

The next morning brought more pain. Aleutian felt wrecked when they approached the dock where the Plunger once called home. Mathias's house stood empty on top of the green hill. Seeing the misery and despair that his people were in didn't help either. He wanted to be far away from this, but his moral conscious; his warrior soul; his protective soul, grew in rage at the thought.

"Our ship's inbound," came Espio, coming along side him.

Aleutian just nodded. "We should be back on land soon. Stenson ordered some boats to take us over. He's going to be on one of them."

"Great. I'm ready to get my land legs back," replied Sonic as he passed by on the upper deck.

"_I'm not!"_ snorted Aleutian to himself.

* * *

The boat ride over took it's toll on Aleutian. He was used to seeing the stern of the Plunger making it's way into the berth; not a wooden life boat's front end.

Aleutian was the first one off, not even stopping to help the others. He wanted away from them, figuring one of them was going to say a stupid comment about being back home, and Aleutian didn't want to be there to hear it. Quickening his pace up the hill as voices called out to him, he raced up to the front door of Mathias's house with his duffel bag in tow. He unlocked the door, and pushed it open, the hinges giving their noticeable creeks.

His mind went back to when he was six when he came at this house for the first time. Mathias's wife had finished baking bread for the returning sailors of the sub when Mathias had walked in, his bearing firm. Aleutian watched from behind the door frame as Faith fell to her knees, the squirrel going into utter shock as Mathias told her that Chester was lost at sea. Her screams and cries still echoed in Aleutian's ears.

Then his thoughts flashed to when Mathias pointed to the door where the young echidna was trying to conceal himself from behind it. "I have someone for you to meet. His name is Aleutian, and he'll being staying with us for awhile."

The image of her climbing to her feet, cleansing her wet hands on her white apron and walking over to him, came to him;

"Well, hello there little one," her sweet voice still calling to him in his head with the tremors of her sadness relevant. "Let me have a look at you."

Aleutian continued forward inside the house, tears trailing behind him on the floor, channeling down his scars behind his eye before they fell. Grabbing pictures, one of which was Amadeus and Mathias, he stuffed them into his bag. Then he rolled the planes of the Plunger up, that were kept in the library were Mathias and Sally had their long talk, and placed them into his bag as well. The last thing he took before he left the house was Mathias's sword. Sliding it halfway out of the scabbard, Aleutian gazed at his reflection on the surface of the stainless steel blade. Closing the blade back in its sheath, he clutched it firmly in his hand and walked out the door.

He turned south, determined to walk home, the whole hundred miles. Aleutian wanted time to think and to get rid of his anger.

"Aleutian!" screamed Knuckles, almost coming out as a cry as he held out his hand as a plea. "Stop, please!" Aleutian did and turned to the silhouetted echidna in the rising sun, his face showing his fragile emotional state.

"Aleutian!" came a steadfast voice from behind him in the distance. Aleutian slowly turned away from his brother to see who was calling for him.

Upon the hill that was dotted with trees that waved in the morning breeze, was a squirrel dressed in blue robes with a crown on top of his head. To his right was Commander St. John, and to his left was Amadeus from what Aleutian gathered from the picture that he had in his bag.

"_Elias?"_ Aleutian realized in his mind. Aleutian wasn't sure if he really was seeing his old friend, or if it was a trick of the brain. He held firm to the ground he stood over as the three Mobians approached him.

Elias stopped three feet away from Aleutian, his face painted in a stern look, trying to match the Guardian's.

Aleutian looked up at his old friend. To his bewildered mind; Elias was crowned, but something else came over him. With a deep resolved filled breath, he dropped down to one knee, bringing the sword up in his hands as he presented it;

"King Elias, I give you the sword of Sir Mathias Drake," he said unevenly; "I regret to inform you, Sire, that he has fallen in battle."

Knuckles just stood in shock when his brother kneeled down before Elias. _"What is going on?"_ he whispered in the mind.

Elias took the sword and passed it back to Amadeus, who inspected it with his sad eyes. "Arise Guardian." he commanded.

Aleutian picked himself up and stood there, his eyes gazing into Elias's. The firm look disappeared as Elias embraced his old friend from sixteen years. Aleutian painfully, but slowly returning it.

"I thought you were dead my old friend," Elias softly said to Aleutian.

Aleutian nudged his mouth closer to Elias's ear, tears streaming from his face. "I wish I was," he softly whispered, his words quivering from his sadness. Elias squeezed his dear friend tighter, realizing that St. John was right.

Sonic was half way up the hill when he saw Elias and Aleutian embrace each other. But behind them, he saw his parents and his Uncle coming down the hill. He dashed to them, nearly running them over as he came to a stop. "Hey, what brings you three here?" he said with a smile. It soon faded when he saw the robotic look from his dad.

"We're here to send off an old friend, son."

* * *

The afternoon saw the last crew of the Plunger, Elias, Sally, and the rest of Acorn's high command, gathered down at the empty dock. The _Hawking_ had set sail after Stenson said his farewells and motored back to the ship. But now, it was time for another.

Amadeus clasped his hands in front of him and took in a deep breath:

"We send a Knight on his final voyage today. He is not here to physically depart from us, but only in our thoughts. This voyage will be much different than the previous ones that he has undertaken before. He will find peace along the way, hopefully finding fallen friends and comrades; maybe even his son. For it will be that every time we look at the sea, we shall remember him; for he is chasing the winds, and floating on the currents.

We commend his body to the deep."

As Amadeus closed the eulogy, Sally and Elias threw a green and red reef into the water. Aleutian watched as the tide took it away, following it with his glistening eyes as the tide took it out on its voyage across the horizon. For a moment he though he was by himself, but as he turned away, his tearful eyes fell onto the last crew of the Plunger. They stood proud before him, only wishing that he felt the same way. Only bowing his head to them as his way of thanking them, he slowly made his way off the dock. And with each passing step, they each grasped at his shoulder, thanking him as he walked passed them.

His ears only heard the sea winds...calling to him as it may; his face embalmed with pain and sadness...

"_...Alleeuutiiann..."_

* * *

Your almost there. Just a few hundred words more and your there. Mark my words though, remember the last phrase from here.

Please review._  
_

* * *


	15. Epilogue: Keeping Promises

* * *

Disclaimer: I observe the rights of the Sonic Characters to their creators.

**Attention:** Edited version. 01-02-08

* * *

**Epilogue: Keeping Promises**

By: Mauser

* * *

The smell of diesel fuel filled the humid air. Night felt as though it was an encrusted shell, only the sounds of the roving sea telling that the outside was present. As the night was still, without any whisper of any sound calling, the wavering fumes added something that could've been a mere resemblance to the notion. And with the Plunger settled at the bottom of the sea, itself entombing Mathias forever in the battlefield and the calling he loved as much as Faith, there wasn't any reason why the fumes should be flowing on the gentle breezes.

But Aleutian knew why.

Standing some twenty yards from the opened door of Mathias's house, his duffel bag behind him about five yards back, he held his black fedora in his hands, looking at it with looming eyes of uncertainty. He still wore his aviator jacket even though there wasn't any need to fend off the lite breeze. But it had this company for the misery he felt in the choices he's made. The one he was contemplating to make. He didn't have to gaze far with the glimmer from the quarter moon, showering its low, pale light through the door, emitting his black coat on the wooden floor.

_Are you sure you want to do this? _he asked himself, reaching into his right jacket pocket. _Are you sure you can live with yourself totally with what you're asking?_

Aleutian's fear of an empty house going to waste was founded. He'd seen through the better ages of his life of what happens to homes that were once called sanctuary to his long dead friends, and companions. He had gone back to one some years and came upon it cleaned out of the former inhabitants' belongings and possessions. And so with that one of many broodingmemories echoing to him, he cleaned out Mathias's house right away. Well, almost. Aleutian only took what really mattered to him and to no one else. Pictures, logs from past sails, and a few keepsake items for himself.

Before turning his weak energy to his own set task, he'd asked a favor from Sonic. To retrieve his black coat and hat.

"You coming with us?" Sonic had asked before he and the rest of the Freedom Fighters departed.

"I don't know yet," Aleutian replied softly to him, almost it seemed to himself.

And now he stood before the house that he grew up in for most of his life. The joys, the pains, the frustrations; it all resonated in here. But as he glared more towards the foot of the door, the repulsive feeling he saw it as dissolving into an empty nest, it fueled Aleutian's kindled heart, igniting old painful memories of the happiness that had left with his adopted family. The ones who looked after him while he and his father fought the indifference from afar.

They were all gone.

With the lighter he retrieved from his jacket pocket becoming the answer to his question, he unshielded the wick and flicked the flint. A lone flame was birthed from it, dancing lonely in his hand. Touching the felt hat he watched the fire spread around the brim of the hat in a ballet of licking glow of orange. Putting the lighter back into his pocket and switching the burning hat to his right hand, he swung himself to the left and kicked back to the right, sending the fedora inside the house like a frisbee, grunting his frustrations out in the same instant. The hat bounced off the floor and slid into the diesel soaked jacket, erupting it into a fierce fire as the fuel was ignited upon contact.

Aleutian slowly walked backwards in bewilderment, passing his duffel bag, and collapsing to the ground as he gazed at the fire engulf the house with a quickness that refreshed him to reality. The inferno spread from the front living room to the adjacent rooms in a matter of minutes with an orange glow lighting up the surrounding field. As the fire grew hotter, thermals kicked up hot embers that rose up with black smoke into the night air.

He crossed his legs beneath him and gazed at the burning house with a dazed look, watching the happier times of his life burn away. For a moment his thoughts were lost to the wind and the crackling roar of wood being enkindled.

Then his inner voice exhumed itself over it all.

_What have I done?_ he painfully questioned himself in the sanctuary of his troubled mind.

"What you believed in!"

The loud voice that boomed over the crackling blaze made Aleutian look up from his crossed legged position. He was startled from the grips of his loneliness at seeing the contours of Locke's commiserated face being etched from the shadows of the orange glow of the burning house. His eyes casting the certitude to his son's.

Aleutian stood up and stared hard in his father's face, tears streaming down from his own. "What are you doing here?" he spat out angrily in a trembling voice.

With his hands beside him, Locke looked straight into Aleutian's eyes, still holding his offering, warm expression. "Coming to thank the one who raised my son."

Aleutian stiffened his jaw, only staring at his father through the dancing flames.

Locke then took in a lasting breath, his eyes never leaving Aleutian's:

"May I stand with my son?...May I stand with you when there is no one who can?"

Aleutian's lips shuddered and within two steps, he closed the gap between them, digging his head into his father's chest, and squeezing his arms around his sides. "I'm sorry, Father!" Aleutian wept out forcefully into his father's chest. "I'm so sorry, Father!"

Locke felt the hard shunts of breaths in his chest as he held his crying son in his arms. At that point: the war, the quest for destiny, and the prophesies were all forgotten. His son needed him, and he was too selfish for so long to see it. When the realization came running home to his heart and Aleutian the one bring it through his weeping tears, Locke embraced him ever tighter under his own welling eyes.

And so began the time of healing. It took a death and a fire to start it, and for Locke, he had to answer for that price...not his scarred son.

"I should've never of done this to you all. Never!" Aleutian whimpered, his voice succumbing to his tears and stammering fits of effusion. "I never wanted it to be like th_is_!..."

Locke continued his firm squeeze around his son, feeling along his dreads with his shaking right hand. "No, it is I, who shouldn't have done what I did to you," admitted Locke in a sincere voice. "I should be wearing those scars and not you," he choked through a whisper, squeezing Aleutian's head tighter into him, caressing with his hand the scars across his face, watching in the distance as the fire claimed the whole house.

_What have I done?_ Locke questioned to himself harshly, repeating Aleutian's question that he felt was aimed at himself. But then the words that he told Knuckles crept into his head for his answer. This time with a different, and more meaningful variation...

_He needs me...I need him._

* * *

I hope the ending was as heart warming for me as it is for you. I knew how I wanted to end Aleutian in this tale, but I didn't know where I wanted to leave him. But I had to look back at "Sense This" and I realized Locke would be a good addition.

Please check out the afterward for clean-ups and a history about the diesel boats, where most of the inspiration of this story comes from.

And thank you for being my audience.


	16. Afterward

**Afterward:**

* * *

Never thought you were going to get educated by a fan fic eh? How was the ending?

To make clarifications to start off with, the measurements are a little off...well, way off, about 700kms off as an overshoot to be exact. But I kept the original distant from the mainland to Angel Island to help build the tension of time constraints plus, help Aleutian and Knuckles bond. And the reason why I did it in Kilometers rather than English, for Kilometers is way better to do calculations with than English rule, for me anyways.

The Plunger is a type VIIC German U-boat. I wanted to use an allied submarine being that I really don't like what Germany, at the time of the "Battle for the Atlantic," stood for. But unfortunately, the games I've played, movies I've watched, and pictures and accounts I have read, the type VIIC is the sub that I know most about. Seeking some accuracy to this story, I wanted to use something that I had great knowledge about, and in the end, better to describe it. But...I added creature comforts: future weaponry and computers (It's in the future anyways) and allied tools and words. I could have used a modern sub, but the teamwork factor in this wouldn't have been utilized to its full effect.

The reason why I wanted to use an old German U-Boat, or World War II sub in itself, is because; you had to deal with an old clunker that broke down and for the crude technology that they had onboard. Compared to today's subs that are mostly driven by nuclear power, and computers. Granted I did put a GPS and autopilot onboard but, again, it's the future. And lastly, I wanted to use the U-Boat for the teamwork. I did my best in having everyone doing something that was very important to the success in the mission. I sat back for hours, trying to pick out the characters who I thought would benefit in helping with the mission, and to keep the number low in the process. )Not to mention the math.)

And to add more tension to the plot, the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix had to learn on the fly, plus, put their feelings of going under the water into something that moans and groans for the first time. But I added the notion that Eggman didn't have any idea of its existence, except by few rumors. Robotnick during the time of The Great War did help put it together, but later, didn't have a say so in its operation. Only King Max did.

The real story behind the World War Two subs: they did smell like diesel all the time, hence, one of their nicknames they had was "diesel boats." But what I left out, and to Knuckles and the gang's benefit: rotting food, bad body odor, and the dampness. Imagine going on a patrol that could last for a month, with that smell lingered around you the whole time. Then imagine about fifty sailors in the same boat. This was true for all nation's submariners during World War II.

By now, you should know that a sub needs to add water to dive below the surface. Ships float because their bouncy equals that of the weight of the water they are displacing. Same holds true to a surfaced submarine. But in order to go down, a sub needs to add weight. In doing so, air is released from the inside the ballast tanks and then flooded with water in the process. After the initial dive, the sub doesn't need to take on anymore water to dive deeper. Instead, they use the dive planes, (or correctly called to Hydroplanes), to either ascend or descend to new depths. If the sub wants back on the surface, the water is blown out of the tanks and up it goes. Most times, a sub would dive down periodically to do trim dives. This was to keep the sub leveled at all times in case of an emergency dive. What trim dives did was move ballast, either it be water of fuel, around the tanks to keep a steady bouncy throughout the sub.

The Plasma torpedo is fiction along with the "snaps" that were heard when the torps set themselves up. This was intended for pure dramatization, but the basis of the targeting computer is not. The LCD monitor, of course, didn't exist but, the depth, speed, heading and bow angle of an "enemy" ship (depending on what country the sub was from) could be plotted in to the TDC or Torpedo Data Computer. This would help set the torpedoes to where they needed to intersect the target at. For both the Germans and Americans at the outset of the war, they had faulty torpedoes. For the Germans, theirs either didn't go off, or sank too low in the water and passed under the ship. And sometimes they would go off prematurely. For the American submariners, they had the same problems but, sometimes a torpedo would go off in a different direction on its own. One of the 52 subs that were sunk throughout the whole war on the American side was taken out by it's own torpedo as it did a 270 degree turn that impacted the side of the boat. The Germans on the other hand would leave with a full 14 torpedo load and only four or five in that load would actually work.

The main purpose of the submarines in the war was to sink enemy merchant tonnage. And the Germans were very good at it, sinking 14.69 million tons of shipping. But that came with a very heavy rice. Out of the 1,158 constructed and operated subs the Germans had; 798 were lost, mostly to the Allies. And by mid-war, the U.S. was building more ships than the Germans could sink.

On the other side of the globe, the United Sates had 288 subs on active patrol through out the war, and only lost 52. But they only sank about 5.6 million tons. One; the Japanese at the time couldn't overproduce what the Allies were sinking, so that made for fewer targets. Second; American Subs were sent on a variety of search and rescue missions for down pilots (George Bush Senior was rescued by a Submarine) and others sent on daring missions that involved transporting commandos to beaches undedicated. But even with this, the American Silent Service accumulated about 55 of all Japanese shipping sunk in the Pacific. Course the Japanese sank the U.S.S. Indianapolis with a submarine, just after the battleship dropped off the Atomic bomb. I myself have held a sea chart that was on that sub, after being taken off it before the U.S. scuttled her after the war.

By the way, you cannot get asphyxiation from an overabundance of hydrogen. Again, I wanted to use that for dramatic purposes. But poor Vector will be having ulcers though because of being exposed to the hydrogen build-up.

Books for more information, or to help you to get to sleep at night:

"Final Patrol" by Don Keith.

"Iron Coffins" by Herbert Werner.

"The Influence of Sea Power Upon History" by Alfred Mahan

Movies to see:

"U-571" of course.

"Run Silent, Run Deep" great black and white film.

"The Enemy Below" with Robert Minchum

Games:

"Silent Hunter 3 and 4".

And check out to see where all German U-boat sinkings are, plus a brief history of the boats themselves

For me now, I am starting on the next part already. For Aleutian, there is only one way...and that is out. How he gets there is the question.


End file.
